The Backup Plan
by Xovinx
Summary: The Arrancar were not all as loyal as they might seem. A conspiracy rose in secret among their ranks, and these conspirators set forth a plan to escape Aizen's rule. Twenty-five years later, the effects of their plan are felt as a number of young citizens of Karakura are caught up in a dangerous plot to return to Soul Society, and defeat a monster long thought locked away...
1. Prologue and Introduction

_Prologue_

_During the battle over False Karakura Town_

Szayelaporro Granz blinked, glancing around. He was a little disoriented, despite having fully expected the transition to be hard. What he hadn't expected was the sudden panic that gripped him as the seconds slipped by, each one coming and going again in heartbeats.

The wound in his chest where Mayuri had stabbed him was already healing, the last of the insidious poison completely disabled inside his body. Szayelaporro stepped back, putting out a hand to steady himself against a fallen pillar. His form blurred for a moment as he reverted back to his unreleased form, then he sheathed his sword, sinking to the ground to let himself recover.

Mayuri had thought slowing a killing blow to the time of a thousand years was a cruel way to win a battle, cruel and ingenious. And with anyone else on the other side of the attack, he would have been right. But Szayelaporro rivaled Mayuri's cruel genius, and when you give a genius a century for every second, particularly a genius capable of manipulating his own body's chemistry, how can you be surprised when he finds his way out?

Szayelaporro knew he couldn't just die. There were captains in Hueco Mundo, in Las Noches itself, and he could tell that Aizen, his Generals and the three first Espada were already in the World of the Living, possibly fighting against the rest of Soul Society's forces now.

The Espada _inside_ Hueco Mundo… there was another story. Szayelaporro frowned as he tried to find his companions' reiatsu, but all he could feel was an almost overwhelming pressure from Ulquiorra. Anything else there might have been to feel was drowned out.

He rested there until he felt strong enough, then began investigating the area, looking for clues as to what had happened after he had been poisoned and stabbed. As he expected, the Shinigami scientist had found his lab. He smirked as he pictured the "fun" Mayuri would get out of the equipment and experiments Szayelaporro had set up in there. The notion almost made being stabbed and suffering it for a few centuries worth it. He walked through the now empty lab, hardly caring about the missing projects. Nothing in here had been that important, most of it just sabotage. His _real_ treasures would have been much harder to find… had his rival even bothered to look.

He released his Resurrección again for just a moment, using the coded sequence to open the secondary vault. As soon as it opened, he reverted back, not wanting to use more energy now then he needed to. He was relieved to see it was all still here, his experiments, his tests, his equipment, his backups…

His backups.

He smiled. They were still here. Whatever happened now, he was ready.

The plan was still in place.

* * *

[Author's Introduction:

Backup Plan is my main Bleach Fanfiction, started late March 2013, completed early February 2014. As one of my biggest writing projects so far, there are a few quirks I would like to point out at the beginning. I'll try to keep it short. :)

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Backup Plan was written with purposefully limited information. I held off reading any of the manga past the end of the anime so my original ideas would remain uncorrupted by new knowledge, so please read with that in mind and keep any reviews free of manga spoilers.

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Backup Plan was written as a novel, with a novel's pacing, so the first few chapters may be slow. It does not stay this way. :D It is also fully complete, so I should be able to update regularly.

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Backup Plan was a Nanowrimo (National Novel Writing Month) challenge, the entire book written over the course of three and a half months with a strict word-count goal. (Results of Nanowrimo may vary.)

While I have edited it, there are some parts that might simply not make any sense. These instances should be few and far between, and they are not meant to set a tone for the chapter or book.

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OCs will appear. Some are rather important. However, I have tried to make all major OCs as reasonable as possible. Please be patient with them. :D

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And that concludes my introduction. I'll try to keep any author's notes from now on infrequent and short so as to avoid interrupting the story. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoy!]


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One

Nakamura Edward walked down the sidewalk, school bag over his shoulder. He glanced at his watch, eager to get back home so he could start dinner before his foster parents got back. And there might still be dishes that needed to go in the dishwasher…

"Yo, Nii-san!"

Edward looked back to see his brother running towards him, waving.

"Whatever happened to your advanced class?" asked Edward, slowing for a moment so Steve could catch up.

"Cancelled," panted Steve, slowing to match Edward's pace as soon as he reached him. "Sensei fell ill, so we're just going to skip it this week and catch up another time. Slow down, Nii-san!"

Edward sighed, but slowed down again. "You've really got to get out more often. Sooner or later I'm going to end up having to carry you to class."

Steve indignantly adjusted his glasses. "Maybe some day I'll end up having to think for you," he retorted. Edward rolled his eyes, but didn't reply.

A few minutes later, they passed the old Itou house, and Steve slowed to wave at his buddy James in the yard. James glanced up and gave him a tiny smile, managing only a curt nod for Edward before turning back to his gardening.

"I have no idea how you stand that guy," muttered Edward, glaring at the scrawny Itou's back. "He's just an antisocial know-it-all."

Steve pushed his glasses up his nose again. "I like know-it-alls," he replied. "Besides, he's fun. If you were a genius I'd tell you all about the debate we got into the other day, all about life and death and the meaning of the universe. Interesting stuff."

Edward rolled his eyes again. "If you're into things like that, I suppose. Anyway, I'm planning on fixing roast beef for dinner, so you can go ahead and plan dessert around that. Any ideas?"

Steve smiled. "Ooo… I have a few."

"What?"

"You'll see," he said with a sneaky smirk. "I might have to experiment a bit…"

The conversation trailed off for a moment, before turning to the newest chapters of their respective favourite mangas, then mangas in general. Soon enough, though, the conversation turned into argument.

"Your manga never go anywhere!" complained Edward. "There are entire chapters where nothing happens, where everyone just sits around talking. Seriously. Now… when your main character is a super-powered ninja with magic spirit swords, _that's _a good story. And the fights are epic…"

Steve sighed. "Have you no class? Isn't it embarrassing that you're about to graduate and you still only read _Shonen_?"

Edward snorted. "The fights are great, and that's what makes a good manga. The character development isn't too distracting, either."

"That's because there _is_ no character development. A few flashbacks when a main character 'dies' for the first time isn't development."

"Yes it is!" protested Edward. "_Kami Katana_ is really getting into Nisshoku's backstory, and it makes me think they might just bring one of the Shirokage back. No character development…" He trailed off, shaking his head at Steve's foolishness.

"Uh, huh. That is a cheap trick the writers use when they want to change the character's behavior. Just make up flashbacks so it _seems_ they must have always been that way. Not like an _intelligent_ story where they never give you cheap answers and half the story is hidden from everyone who isn't paying attention."

Edward frowned. "I don't want to have to reread a chapter ten times just to notice the oh-so-important sign behind the random police officer so I understand why the… waiter… kicked the bucket. Kicking the bucket should have obvious reasons! Like being stabbed through the chest with a sword that sucks out your mage-energy!"

"The mere thought of such a thing existing is ludicrous," Steve said as they turned up their sidewalk. "You should broaden your interests a little, or you'll never get anywhere in life."

"Say that to my karate Sensei. He'll kick you through the window. Hey, Kuro! Miss me?" He stopped in the yard and snatched his black cat from the grass. "Where're your siblings, silly boy?"

Steve glanced around the yard and spotted the other two kittens by their peach tree, and pointed. "Over there."

"Shiro! Ichigo! You didn't come to greet me," called Edward, sounding insulted. He went to pet his cats for a few minutes, leaving his adopted brother to unlock the door.

"Couldn't you have come up with more imaginative names?" Steve asked, almost as an aside. "If you were going to name them after their color, why 'Strawberry'?"

"Because I wasn't about to name him 'Orange,'" replied Edward, as if it should be obvious. "Seriously, I can't think of a more idiotic name for a cat than 'Orange.'"

Steve had no real response for that, so he shrugged, pushing open the door.

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Tochika Tamotsu carefully buttoned the cuffs of his suit, checking his reflection one last time before nodding decisively. His parents were hosting a dinner party for several important families, and it wouldn't do for him to look anything less then splendid. Of course, he thought as he flicked his golden hair out of his eyes, he never looked anything but.

He knew how it would go, same as every other dinner. His parents have him mingle with their guests, he would shake hands and smile and repeat names, and then, in the end, it would end up being just him, Chikuma and Erina at their own little table in the corner.

A light flickered across his room, and he turned to glance out the window. A car was crawling up the driveway, no doubt one of the early arrivals. Tamotsu squared his shoulders and headed for the door.

The evening began as he expected it would, and after an hour of greeting, talking and generally being a proper son for his parents, he found himself exactly where he had expected. Chikuma was there of course, his parents had been partners and friends of Tamotsu's for several years, and Erina, predictably, as the daughter of wealthy entrepreneurs who were establishing their empire with the help of Tamotsu's parents.

The three were as close friends as they could be, given their respective upbringings and the formal atmosphere that surrounded practically their every meeting.

Erina, with her friendly, outgoing attitude, was always the first to establish a conversation, and Tamotsu was always quick to keep it strong. Chikuma, while a brilliant young man, was rather awkward around people and tended to sit quietly, nodding, saying "Yes," or "I agree," and little else.

At some point, the conversation turned to the series of accidents in one of the less-wealthy areas of the city. Apparently Erina, who walked through the area to get to her karate lessons each Wednesday, said they were supposed to be the fault of broken electric wires, and that the company was looking into repairing them now.

"But," she said, lowering her voice as she leaned in. "I think it's something else."

Tamotsu cocked his head, drawn in by her conspiratorial tone. "What do you mean?" he asked.

She glanced around for a moment. "I think it's aliens," she said after a moment. Chikuma perked up.

"Aliens?" he asked curiously, and Erina nodded.

"I saw one of them," she said. "Right there in the road, and it was breaking the wires when it walked past them."

"You saw an alien," stated Tamotsu, rather skeptically. Erina blushed.

"Well, I sort of saw it. It was invisible, but I know it was there, and I could see its outline. Don't get me wrong, it was definitely there, it was just hard to see."

"Why didn't everyone see it, then?" asked Tamotsu. "If it was really there, then there should be a lot more witnesses."

"Most people don't notice," said Chikuma, then ducked back slightly when they both looked at him. "I-I mean, I agree."

"Can you see them too?" asked Erina, excited. Chikuma lowered his gaze.

"Maybe…" was all he said.

"Now I'm feeling left out," said Tamotsu, crossing his arms and leaning back. "You're saying you can both see invisible aliens that are going around breaking electric wires that no one else knows about?"

Erina crossed her arms, mirroring his position. "Kuma-kun can see them too, which means I'm not crazy. Which means I can show you I'm right."

Tamotsu chuckled slightly. "How in the world would you do that?" he asked.

"We can head down to that area, and when I see an alien coming towards something breakable, I'll warn you. That why, when the 'accident' happens, you'll know it was actually an alien! And, who knows, maybe you'll actually be able to see them too!"

"Do you realize how crazy this sounds?" asked Tamotsu, and Erina narrowed her eyes stubbornly.

"The aliens are real, and I will prove it," she said, and Chikuma nodded silently next to her.

"I agree," he said quietly, looking at Tamotsu expectantly.

Tamotsu sighed. "This is ridiculous," he complained.

"So you're coming?" asked Erina, taking his statement as his consent.

"Despite the fact that it is ridiculous?" he asked, then sighed again. "Fine, but if I get squashed by an alien I can't see, I'll… come back and haunt you."

Erina waved a hand airily. "Ghosts don't exist," she said confidently.

"But aliens do?" retorted Tamotsu.

Chikuma said nothing, merely smiled knowingly at them both.

.

Itou James pulled the last weed from his sadly pathetic garden, sitting back against his heels. He looked it over carefully to make sure he had truly gotten every last weed, then picked up his trowel and walked back to the porch of his sadly run-down house. He took off his work shoes and set them neatly aside, took off his hat and hung it on the edge of the rotting rocking chair. He hesitated, realizing just how sad the fact of the rotting rocking chair truly was, and then shook his head and opened the door.

The house, despite its derelict state, was surprisingly cool, even in the heat of summer. James looked into the kitchen, with the neat, clean dishes already drying, then in the hall, where the washing machine was running jerkily. His fish was swimming slowly around in its clean bowl of fresh water. After a moment, he mentally admitted there was nothing else for him to do and wandered down into the basement, flicking his laptop on and picking up his keyboard.

Steve wasn't online, not that it was that surprising. He actually had a life, after all. A brother, parents. James gave a slight sigh and opened his language program, getting out his Spanish notes.

A spirit walked down the stairs, crying softly. James looked up at it, watching until it sat down in the corner.

"What a pointless existence," he said to himself, turning back to his computer. "Wandering around, alone, no purpose and no improvement…"

His pale fingers typed out a quick sentence, and he settled down to study, the spirit's quiet weeping becoming nothing more then background noise.

He was used to it. These spirits were always nearby, always crying, always alone. What did they expect _him_ to do? Or were there simply so many of these aimless souls wandering around that they truly filled the world? Somehow that possibility didn't surprise him.

It seemed death was as empty for most as life was for him.


	3. Arrancar Interlude 1

_Interlude_

The door opened quietly, and Grimmjow slipped inside, followed cautiously by Tesla and Vega. The others were already mostly there.

"So… what's this about?" asked Grimmjow as soon as he sat down, looking around at the others. "I thought we agreed we couldn't risk Barragan or Tōsen finding out about this."

"This is important, though," declared Szayelaporro, standing. "It should be obvious to us all by now that Aizen isn't going to just leave us alone now that he's here. He intends to use us for his war, and, as we have seen, he has the power to destroy practically anyone who attempts to oppose him.

"He isn't one of us!" snapped Grimmjow, smashing his fist into the arm of his chair. "Why should we have to serve him?"

"Be silent, Grimmjow," said Ulquiorra emotionlessly, opening his eyes to give Grimmjow a flat stare. "Aizen-sama is powerful, and there are several that would eagerly take advantage of this kind of discussion to put us all on his bad side."

Grimmjow leaned back, crossing his arms sourly, but said nothing more.

"You are both right," Szayelaporro said, nodding to himself. "Aizen expects us to serve him, and none of us, individually, have the power now to oppose him. He plans to bring us against the Shinigami, Hueco Mundo against Seireitei. And we cannot underestimate the Shinigami, either. Obviously, there are incredibly powerful Shinigami out there, Aizen has shown us that much. I do not believe he is so overwhelmingly more powerful then the other Shinigami that he is the only one that could defeat us. I am also unwilling to die for his cause, neither he nor his Generals are even Hollow, after all!"

"But we can't just leave!" exclaimed Tesla. "He would stop us, probably kill us all. And some of us have masters to whom we owe our loyalty…"

"Would you have Nnoitra defeated by a superior opponent, simply because Aizen forced us into a battle with Seireitei's most powerful forces?" asked Szayelaporro, and Tesla looked horrified at the thought. Szayelaporro continued. "Whatever he might say, we are Aizen's tools. Nothing more. Whether we live or die is tied now to his will, and we can't flee without hastening our own demise. The only way to survive this war, I believe, is to find a way out without Aizen realizing we are abandoning him."

Grimmjow scowled. "How exactly are we supposed to do that?" he snapped. "The guy's too powerful, and the majority of Arrancar, and some of the Espada, are still loyal to him. Do you expect us to fight our way out, or hide out in the Living World? What's our plan?"

Szayelaporro shook a finger for a moment at Grimmjow before going back to tapping his chair. "Good question. I'm going through possible scenarios, trying to find one we could use to our advantage. The problem is… we really do make up a significant portion of Aizen's forces, power-wise. It would be hard for even one of us to disappear, and any more then that and we would surely be caught. But don't worry, I will figure something out."

"If you do not, then we must merely win the Shinigami's war for him," stated Ulquiorra, standing. "He and his enemies may be powerful, but so are we. I do not intend to let a mere Shinigami destroy me."

He turned and left the room, and a moment later Szayelaporro nodded.

"Well, I guess that's plan B. For now, just don't let anyone realize what we're doing, I don't know how Aizen would react to a conspiracy among the Espada, so he must never know about it. And watch yourself around those other Shinigami he brought with him. The foxy one especially I don't trust…"

The meeting quickly dispersed, the various Arrancar distancing themselves in moments. Outside that room, their secret alliance didn't exist.


	4. Chapter Two

Chapter Two

Vance fell back onto his hands, his body making an arc as he looked up at the ceiling. He held the pose for a minute before flipping up into a handstand, and then from there back to his feet. He cracked his neck to get out the kinks, satisfied.

"Hurry, Vance! Have you brushed your hair yet? You'll be late!"

"No, I won't!" he retorted, calling back down the stairs at his nagging mom. He grabbed his jacket and headed downstairs, brushing past her attempts to stop and comb his hair.

"Do you have your books?" she asked worriedly. "And your uniform?"

"Yes, I know what I'm doing," he said, wincing as she grabbed his shoulders, straightening his jacket.

"And you've got to come straight home this time, remember?" she said, reaching up for his hair again. He shied away, backing against the door.

"I know, I know. Bye, Oka-san." Before she had time to start again, he slipped outside and broke into a jog, heading down the street for school.

Herald was already at his gate waiting, though anyone else walking past might have mistaken what he was doing for sleeping. He was leaning against the fence, eyes closed, bag lying in a heap at his feet.

"Ohayo, Herald," Vance greeted, and his taller friend sighed, opening his eyes.

"Ohayo," he said, bending down to retrieve his bag. "You're early."

"Oka-san was hovering again, so I decided to cut the risk of her making me late by just going. You know how she is."

"I guess," replied Herald, running a hand lazily through his hair as he tried to wake up. "Yesterday, where were you? You kinda disappeared on me."

Vance shrugged apologetically. "Yeah, sorry about that, but there was an accident while I was coming back from karate. The street practically blew up. And now Oka-san is all worried I'll die if I don't come straight home, so I'm gonna have to hold off hanging out for a few days. Just until she calms down, you know?"

Herald nodded, then looked at him with mild curiosity. "So… the street blew up?" he asked., and Vance grinned.

"Hardly a hundred yards away from me. A lot of electric wires were caught in the explosion, and a few of the buildings got hit too. It was pretty huge. The police were all over it, trying to figure out what happened, but I don't think they can blame the electric company this time."

"Ohayōgozaimasu! Vance, Herald!"

The two friends looked up, then Vance raised a hand in greeting when he spotted Ryohime. The girl quickly caught up to them and slowed, smiling.

"You two were actually ahead of me for once," she teased, her eyebrows pressed into a slight V by her perpetual almost-frown, despite her smile. "That's strange, especially for you, Herald."

"My fault," Vance cut in cheerfully. "Though why Herald was still ready despite my leaving early is still a mystery…"

Herald shrugged noncommittally. "How's life?" he asked Ryohime, and her smile faded slightly.

"We've had several patients, what with all the accidents recently, but almost all of them are being transferred to a real hospital. We nearly lost one… but hopefully things will calm down soon. They're looking into the source of the explosions, right?"

Vance nodded. "My theory is sabotage from foreign spies," he said excitedly. "Next thing you know, people are just going to start disappearing."

Ryohime frowned at him lightly. "Somehow I doubt that enemy ninjas are responsible."

Vance grinned, turning and walking backwards in front of them. "Just wait, then. When the conspiracy comes out, you'll all see…"

.

Tamotsu, Erina and Chikuma walked down the street, Erina the only one truly at ease. Tamotsu was unused to this side of Karakura, namely the not-insanely-rich side, and Chikuma… he just wasn't comfortable around people in general. Erina, as she had told them several times before, traveled this route several times a week, to and from her karate dojo.

"And the majority of the incidents have happened around this area," she said as they walked, practically bouncing as she walked.

"So… what, are we just going to wait here all day and see if some alien tries to step on us?" asked Tamotsu skeptically. "This plan doesn't seem entirely thought-through."

Erina crossed her arms. "Nonsense. See, I have a theory that needs testing, too. Two weeks ago, there were none of these alien incidents. Then about two happened in… what was it, a week? After that it went to two or three over the next five days, and we've had at one (or more) almost every day since. Yesterday there were two, a 'gas-line' explosion and a 'car accident'. But I _saw_ it, a car crashed into an alien in the street, and then the _alien_ crushed it, causing it to blow up. I see no reason why they wouldn't attack today when they have been so frequently for the past few days. We just have to wait."

Chikuma nodded, sticking his hands in his pockets. "I agree."

"Well I think it's an absurd notion," said Tamotsu, scowling. "Aliens don't exist, and these accidents are just that, _accidents_."

Erina stopped in front of a shop window, giving a glance to the products displayed. "Even if we don't find anything out, we can at least get a nice day away from all… _that_," she said, waving a hand in the direction of their homes. Tamotsu raised an eyebrow.

"Why do we need a day away from 'that'?" he asked, and Erina stared at him in the reflection of the glass.

"'Why?'! Don't you ever find it a bit… suffocating? Always having to look perfect and act just right… I'm still new to this whole 'rich' thing, and it just makes me feel so… caged."

"That's why you go to a karate class in a lower class district," Tamotsu said. "Me, I'm completely happy right where I am."

He turned away from the shop, meaning to keep moving, but instead smacked right into someone walking behind him. The smaller boy was knocked to the ground, his book satchel dropping from his hands onto the sidewalk.

"Oh, I'm sorry, are you alright?" Tamotsu hastily said as he reached a hand down to help the boy up. He realized the boy was actually older then he had originally thought, maybe as old as Tamotsu himself, and strangely enough didn't seem particularly upset at being knocked down. With a rather mild expression, the dark-haired boy got to his feet, taking the satchel Chikuma had retrieved for him.

"I'm fine," he said shortly, turning to go. Tamotsu watched him go, eyebrows slightly furrowed as he tried to figure out what felt so wrong.

"Does anyone else feel that?" asked Erina quietly a moment later. Chikuma looked at her, eyes wide in his particular, explaining expression.

"Spirits are attracted to him," he said quietly. Tamotsu and Erina looked at him in surprise.

"W-what?" asked Tamotsu, glancing down the street at the retreating back of the dark-haired boy.

"Spirits," said Chikuma again, looking slightly uncomfortable at the need to speak again. "They are attracted to him, just like they are attracted to me. He's got some pretty gloomy ones, though…"

Erina's eyes widened in excitement. "Spirits are attracted to you?!" she said, seeming to forget the excitement of her 'aliens' theory. "Really?! Is that why I always feel that little tingle when we hang out?"

Tamotsu was lost. "Wait, you feel _what_?"

Any further discussion was lost as there was a sudden, fiery explosion down the street, a shock-wave of hot wind blowing past them. Erina took off at a run, dodging frozen pedestrians as she hurried toward the site. Chikuma glanced at Tamotsu, then grabbed the taller boy's hand and pulled him along after her.

"It's not an alien," Tamotsu managed, jerking his hand out of Chikuma's so he could run on next to him. Chikuma nodded without hesitation.

"I agree."

Tamotsu looked at him in surprise, nearly running into someone before he realized he wasn't looking where he was going. "I thought you said…"

"They're not aliens. They feel…" Chikuma paused for a second, then continued. "They feel more like spirits."

Suddenly, Chikuma skidded to a stop, then launched himself at Tamotsu, catching him around the legs and knocking them both to the ground. Tamotsu drew in a breath to snap something, but a hearbeat later an electric-pole right behind them broke in half with an explosion of splinters and metal.

"What the…?" gasped Tamotsu, then his question caught in his throat as something slammed into his back. "Chikuma, get off me!"

"I'm… not…"

Tamotsu twisted his head and looked back. His eyes widened.

Chikuma was hovering. In mid air. Two feet off the ground. His hands were locked around something in front of him, something invisible, and he was gasping for breath as if someone was choking him. Any thought that this was some strange, complicated joke was quickly dismissed from Tamotsu's mind, whatever was holding him down was something incredibly strong, yet completely invisible.

"Chikuma, what's going on?!" he screamed, struggling. "Chikuma!"

Something roared, something painfully close that Tamotsu could feel reverberating through the… object pinning him to the floor. He was having trouble breathing… what was going on?!

"Tamotsu, Chikuma!"

Erina's yell sounded distant, and Tamotsu realized he was starting to black out. The pressure on his back, his chest, was making breathing impossible. He struggled harder, but the movements had no effect on the thing holding him and only made him dizzier. Weakly he raised his head. The street was hard to make out, his vision was swimming, but he could see someone running swiftly towards them.

"Go… back…" he tried to warn, but his voice came out in a hoarse whisper. "E…rina… stay… back!"

He threw all his strength in one effort, trying to rise to his knees. The thing holding him down shifted slightly, but only thrust him back to ground, pressing harder then before, three sharp points digging into his back. Finally, Tamotsu could hold on no longer, and he sank helplessly into unconsciousness.


	5. Arrancar Interlude 2

_Interlude_

Szayelaporro leaned against the wall, sighing. His first tests were proving fruitless; the data Ulquiorra had brought back simply wasn't sufficient for his needs.

"Where are you?" he asked the empty lab, eyes flicking from screens of data to test tubes to the strange devices he had set up against one wall. The answer was out there, somewhere. The way for Szayelaporro and his companions to escape this deathtrap their Shinigami tyrant-master had forced them into. Szayelaporro, as much as any of his companions, wanted to be free of the Shinigami who dared make them his slaves. But, again, he knew as well as all the others they could not risk Aizen's wrath without somewhere to go… someway to escape out of his vengeful sight forever.

But _how_? _Where_? Aizen was the one invading their home, and though they might be safe in the furthest, deepest depths of Hueco Mundo, he couldn't imagine how they could all escape there without catching Aizen's attention and being stopped.

There was a sharp knock on the door, and Szayelaporro quickly switched labs. His research was replaced by rather stereotypical evil-scientist-looking equipment, most of it completely useless. His latest pair of Fraccions was still waiting mindlessly in this fake lab, wandering around with small boxes and tubes of bubbling green liquid and nasty goop. Perfect.

"Come in," Szayelaporro called, putting a touch of impatience into his voice. He slid his fingers back into his glove-like sleeves and reached for the nearest useless piece of equipment as the door slid open.

"Yo, it's just me."

Szayelaporro turned, scowling. "Grimmjow, what do _you_ want?"

Grimmjow glared at him with a scornful expression. "Ulquiorra sent this from the human world for you," he snapped, thrusting a small package at him. "Says it's a measurement of the Shinigami Daiko's reiatsu, or something equally boring. I don't really care, just take the wretched thing!"

Szayelaporro took it eagerly, ready to rip it open, then hesitated. He looked back to glare at Grimmjow, standing casually with his hands stuffed into his pockets.

"Are you going to stand around here all day, or are you going to let me get back to work?" asked the pink-haired scientist, and Grimmjow's lip twitched. He snarled and turned to leave, giving the nearest table a hefty kick as he passed. Szayelaporro yelped and darted forward, managing to stop anything significant from smashing on the floor.

"Have fun, crazy," Grimmjow said as a parting shot before slamming the door behind him. Szayelaporro sighed, glaring at the place the Sixth had stood moments before.

"Housecat!" he whispered under his breath, just barely loud enough to be heard. He then turned back to his work, ordered one of the Fraccions to move the crates back to the other side of the room, glancing around… and snapping his fingers. The lab faded around him, the harsh bright light on the fake replaced with the dim darkness of his working lab.

There, he sat down in his swiveling work chair and carefully opened the package. There was nothing inside but a single piece of paper, folded like a letter and locked with a reiatsu seal in the shape of a black wing, lined with green.

Szayelaporro drew his sword, smiling. He took a deep breath and tipped his head back, raising the sword high above his mouth.

"Sip, Fornicarás!"


	6. Chapter Three

Chapter Three

James couldn't help the twinge of horror that ran through him as the… _creature_ stomped past him, bearing down on the unsuspecting bystanders. He was crouched behind a car by an alley, wondering why this thing kept showing up. Or, was it perhaps numerous ones? Was it, or they, hunting him? Or was it merely attracted, like these wailing spirits were, to his presence. He wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

A young woman with light brown hair was dashing down the street toward him, toward the first explosion, rather, but stopped suddenly as another, smaller one smashed the sidewalk behind her. She turned, eyes wide with shock. James followed her gaze and spotted the two blonde boys she had been with by the shop window. His breath caught in his throat. The creature was right on top of them!

"Run, you fools," he whispered to himself, unable to tear his gaze away. Why couldn't they see it? Couldn't they feel the shaking at its steps, hear the roars?

"Tamotsu, Chikuma!" screamed the young woman, turning to run back toward them. James reacted purely on instinct then, darting from his hiding place to tackle her to the ground.

"It's dangerous!" he hissed, grabbing her arm and pressing it against the ground. "You can't help them!"

"But that… that _thing_ has Chikuma!" the young woman sobbed, and James rocked back on his heels.

"You can see it?" he gasped, and she used his moment of distraction to grab _his_ arm, flipping him off her with a single, strong flick.

"I can _feel_ it, and that's enough! I'm not letting it kill them!"

James scrambled to his knees, reaching out to grab her hand before she could run to her own demise.

"You don't understand, you _can't_—"

"Let go of me!"

James braced himself as the young woman drew back her free hand, an almost frantic look in her eyes. She wasn't going to let him hold her back… and why was he even trying? If the foolish woman wanted to run to her death, why should he stand in her way?

But before either of them could take action, someone dashed past them, towards the monster. At least, James thought it was a person, though the speed with which it moved was far faster then a regular human should be able to manage. He caught a glimpse of bright orange hair before the figure leapt into the air, absurdly high, and lashed out with one foot at the creature's head.

There was a deafening roar, and the creature dropped its intended victim to the ground. James, kneeling on the ground, still tightly holding the woman's wrist, watched the limp body fall to the ground. He didn't hear the thud, but he could imagine it, and from that distance it had to hurt.

"Wha… who is that?" asked the young woman, fear evident in her voice.

"I have no idea…" whispered James to himself, loosening his grip as the woman wrenched her hand away from him. The monster was distracted, heading toward the orange-haired person that had attacked it. Said orange-head was practically _running_ up the side of a building, apparently heading for the roof. James' eyes followed the figure until it was out of sight, and then the monster as it followed.

"Somebody help me!"

James looked back at the streets. Two electric poles had been completely destroyed, the lines draped on the ground sparking dangerously. The road was torn apart, along with the sides of several buildings along the street. Most everyone had fled the area after the monster had caused the second explosion, the only remaining being James, the young woman, and her two blonde friends.

She was kneeling next to them, wavering back and forth as she shook them. "Tamotsu, Chikuma! Wake up, please wake up! Chikuma! Don't be dead, please! Tamotsu! Chikuma!"

Again and again… she was just calling their names as if repetition could save them. James got to his feet, realizing just now that his shoulder ached from where he had hit the pavement, when the monster had first attacked. Clutching it with his other hand, he stumbled toward the woman.

"Come on, come on! Wake up!" She crouched next to the taller of the two, the one that had knocked James down, and pressed an ear to his chest. "Don't die on me…"

She threw his arm around her shoulders and got to her feet, raising her unconscious friend with her. James watched her, then flinched as her grey eyes locked on him.

"Help me," she said. "Please."

James looked at the ground. "How?"

"There's a clinic nearby, I need to get Chikuma and Tamotsu there. I can't carry them both by myself, and there's no one left here to help me. Please."

James hesitated for a heartbeat, then wordlessly walked over to the smaller of the two, bending down to grab the small teenager's scrawny arms. He awkwardly managed to get him onto his back, then struggled back to his feet.

"I hope you know where you're going,' he said as he began following the young woman.

"I do." She glanced back at him as they hurried down the street, then looked away. "We have to hurry."

.

The small clinic was nestled between houses on a regular street, and Erina knew she was very fortunate to have known of it at all. Her father had once known the owner, so even though she had never been there herself she knew exactly where it was.

Her dark-haired helper was breathing hard by the time they reached the doors, drooping under Chikuma's weight. Erina resolved to make it up to him, somehow, after this was all taken care of. But now she didn't have the time to think about it. She raised her hand and banged on the clinic's doors.

There were lights on in the first floor, so she assumed there was someone there. Sure enough, less then a minute later, the door opened.

A teenaged girl, maybe around fifteen years old, stood in the door. The first thing Erina noticed about her was the girl's shockingly orange hair, and even in her haste to make sure her friends were alright, she couldn't help but pause for a second.

"Oh, my… are they hurt?" asked the girl, spotting Tamotsu and Chikuma. She stepped to the side and held the door open. "Please, come in!"

Erina hurried in, managing a smile. "They... fell. I don't know how serious it is, so I thought…"

She trailed off as the girl motioned them both into an adjoining hospital room, pulling back the curtains from the beds.

"Please put them down here," the orange-haired girl said, motioning. Erina complied, and behind her the dark-haired boy did the same. The girl began checking their heartbeats, breathing and the like, and Erina wisely stood back and said nothing that might distract.

The girl stood back up after a minute with a sigh of relief. "Well, they're both breathing, at least, and I don't think either of them are in danger at the moment. " She headed for the door. "My name is Ryohime, by the way. Kurosaki Ryohime."

"Asano Erina. The two we brought in are my friends, Tochika Tamotsu and Hisayoshi Chikuma."

Ryohime nodded, then motioned to the couches in the waiting room. "If you don't mind, could you wait here while I make sure your friends are alright? My father should be getting back any time, and then he can take care of them, but until then…"

Erina nodded, relieved someone older was on the way. "Alright. Thank you!" she called as Ryohime headed back toward the hall. Then she noticed the dark-haired boy she had come with. He was heading for the door.

"Hey, wait!" she said, reaching out to take his arm. He looked up, first at her hand, then at her eyes.

"What do you want?" he asked, and she was slightly taken aback by how empty his voice seemed. Did he care nothing for the fact he had just helped save the life of another person?

"I… well, thank you. I couldn't have gotten them both here myself, so thank you."

He looked away. "I need to get home."

Erina felt something odd in her chest, pity maybe, as she took back her previous thought. He didn't sound like he didn't care. He sounded sad. "What's your name?" she asked, more gently.

He looked back at her, eyebrows lowered slightly as if he was annoyed. "James. Will you let go of me now, woman?"

Erina's hand fell, and she stepped back. "Alright, bye then," she said, disappointed by his reaction. As he continued walking for the door, Erina wondered if she should try to call him back, but before she had the chance to act, he was gone.

.

James walked on, hands stuffed into his pockets, eyes downcast. It was getting late… the sun was already setting. Had he really been out here for so long? It didn't seem that long, but then, he had had a rather busy afternoon.

Orange hair…

A man with orange hair fighting invisible monsters, a girl with orange hair at the clinic. James had only had a glimpse of the first, but something about that girl felt familiar. Maybe it was just a coincidence, but he didn't think it likely. There were hardly that many people with bright orange hair in Karakura.

He was still thinking about it when he arrived back at his dingy house. He pushed through the creaky gate and walked up to the porch, glancing at his garden to make sure nothing had destroyed it while he was gone. Nothing had. He smiled his small smile and unlocked his door.

He had been away all day and hadn't had anything to eat since breakfast, so he turned away from the hall (and the door down to his basement) to go to the kitchen. The setting sun was shining into the room from the window over the sink, turning walls and floor a pretty red shade. James took his glass from its place on the counter where it had been drying and went to get a drink, checking as he did the small pot of flowers he had set on the windowsill.

Dinner for James was always a simple thing, and today was no exception. He washed several small cabbage leaves and heated the leftover fish and rice he had made yesterday, then took the small plate of food down to his basement.

The basement was probably the best-maintained room in the house. It was dry and warm, the floor was carpeted, and a row of three lightbulbs lit it evenly with unflickering light. When they were on. James preferred to keep them off while he worked, he found it was less distracting when the only light was that of his computer screen.

And he didn't have to see the spirits.

He ate while studying his latest Spanish lesson, a soft playlist of instrumental music running on the side. After he finished his dinner, he checked to see if Steve was online. Unsurprisingly, he wasn't. James sighed softly and turned back to his lesson.

The sun was gone, and a dim twilight had descended over the world as he went back upstairs to take a break and wash his dishes. He flicked on a light in the kitchen and glanced around to make sure there weren't any more dirty dishes hanging around that he hadn't noticed.

There weren't any, but he did notice something else rather disturbing. He put his plate and fork in the sink and went over to his fish's bowl, eyebrows lowering in concern. The small fish was floating on the surface of the water, looking quite dead.

James nudged it slightly with a finger. It didn't move. He sighed sadly and went to get a ziplock bag. His fish was looking the worse for wear; it was time for a trip to the pet-store he had bought it from.

.

"It's dead."

James blinked. "Souka."

The man behind the counter looked at him curiously. "Do you want to buy a new one? We've got quite a few nice ones you can take a look at."

James didn't bother responding, merely turning to walk out. The pet-store employee called after him indignantly to at least _take_ his dead fish with him, but he hadn't finished before James was out the door.

James had walked the whole way, so it was quite late by now. The moon was rising over the tops of the shorter buildings already, and James looked up at it for a moment as he walked.

Suddenly, a dark shape flicked past, silhouetted by the silver light.

James almost lost sight of it as it passed into the darkness of the night sky, but the flicker of movement was enough to track it with his sharp eyes. He watched as whatever it was landed gently on the roof of a nearby building, then took off again, flying into the darkness of the night.

_What was that?_ he wondered, putting his hands into his pockets. No answer was forthcoming, and after a moment of staring after it he turned to head back home. It had been a long day.


	7. Arrancar Interlude 3

_Interlude_

"I have a plan."

Szayelaporro, Grimmjow and Ulquiorra were walking to Aizen-sama's throne room. Ulquiorra had returned from his mission to the World of the Living, and soon would be reporting it to the rest of the Arrancar.

"A plan?" asked Grimmjow, stalking along next to him with his hands in his pockets, eyebrows lowered in his angry scowl. Despite the knowledge that Szayelaporro had shifted them all to his secondary dimension, that they couldn't be overheard or spied upon, Grimmjow wasn't comfortable walking so openly with the other two.

"Yes, but unfortunately it's a bit drastic," replied Szayelaporro. "It is, in fact, something I would prefer we don't have to resort to, but it might be a good thing to have on hand should we need it. A backup plan, as it were."

"What is this plan of yours?" asked Ulquiorra, sounding no more interested in this backup plan then he was interested in anything else.

Szayelaporro frowned thoughtfully. "Unfortunately, I don't even know if it's possible right now. It's more of a theory at this point, but one I believe I should be able to work with. Before I go on, I need you to understand one thing. For this to work, I will need test subjects."

Grimmjow groaned. "You know none of the Espada would let you do things to them, you'll need to use the lesser Arrancar. Even that might be difficult without being detected…"

Szayelaporro shook his head. "No, it's not like that. Let me reword that… I need a test subject that knows what I'm doing, who is willing to do it, and is ready to voluntarily die."

.

Ulquiorra and Yammy walked into the dark hall, the shadowy figures of the other Arrancar visible all along the upper levels. Yammy dropped to one knee when they came to a stop, and Ulquiorra looked up.

"We have returned, Aizen-sama."

"Welcome back, Ulquiorra… Yammy," came the elegant voice of their leader. Aizen sat on his high throne, looking down at the two with his usual smile. "Now, tell me of your accomplishments, in front of your twenty brothers."

Grimmjow waited as the Fourth Espada made his report, feeling uncomfortable. He could feel two of his Fraccions behind him, where they were supposed to be, and prepared to do whatever he said. Shawlong and D-Roy, the former standing stiffly by Grimmjow's side, the latter kneeling behind him, knew little of the plan, but they knew what they were supposed to do here and now.

Finally, Ulquiorra finished his brief report, commenting on how his orders had been to kill the Shinigami Daiko _if_ he proved too dangerous, and Grimmjow caught his cue. He took a breath and launched into his objection.

"How soft of you!" he exclaimed scornfully, the disdain in his voice clear to anyone with half a brain. "I would have squashed them with my first blow."

Ulquiorra looked over his shoulder at the blue-haired Espada, nothing in his eyes hinting at their shared plan. "Grimmjow…" he said, as if merely saying his name could make Grimmjow shut up.

"Whatever the reasoning," continued Grimmjow, "if 'kill him' was part of the order, it would have been best to kill him, of course! Right?!"

Behind him, Shawlong spoke up, unmoving. "I agree... whatever the case, he's the enemy. There may have been no reason to kill him, but there was even less reason to let him live."

Grimmjow felt a short surge of regret as he continued baiting Ulquiorra and Yammy, the arguments coming easily, the attitude even easier. He didn't really have to think about it much to make it real, and his thoughts were actually far from the conversation.

They were going to die.

Grimmjow didn't like it, but Szayelaporro was insistent. And not all of them had to die. Yylfordt Granz had already been told of what they needed for the continuation of the plan and willing agreed, but they required an environment that fit Szayelaporro's specifications. A dangerous one…

And the first step was to be laid right here. Those that were not part of the conspiracy needed something to rationalize Grimmjow, and his Fraccions', actions. This argument would pave the way.

It may have been necessary, but Grimmjow still didn't like it. His anger during that meeting was real, merely redirected.


	8. Chapter Four

Chapter Four

Chikuma groaned, blinking his eyes open. For a moment he couldn't remember what had happened, then he realized he was in a hospital bed, and everything came rushing back. They had been attacked… him and Tamotsu.

He gasped and sat up, or tried to. His ribs screamed in protest and he collapsed back onto his pillows, gritting his teeth from the pain.

"You're awake!"

Chikuma looked over, and was glad to see Tamotsu already awake on the next bed. "Ohayo," Chikuma said, wincing at the pain. "What… happened?"

"Your friend brought you both in after your accident," came a new voice, and Chikuma turned in surprise. Standing in the doorway was a girl, mid-teens, with bright orange hair tied back in a rather unruly ponytail. She was wearing the white uniform one would expect in a hospital, and had a nurse hat on.

She smiled at him. "Don't worry, you've got a couple cracked ribs and one of your ankles is fractured, but they should all heal well with rest. How do you feel?"

Chikuma looked at Tamotsu in alarm, unsure how to respond to the pretty girl. Tamotsu rolled his eyes, jerking his head at her as if to say "Get on with it!"

"I-I'm fine," Chikuma managed, then winced. He _wasn't_ fine! He hurt! But he also couldn't think very quickly at the moment.

"That's good, but don't hesitate to tell me if your injuries get to be too painful," the girl said briskly, moving forward to check some things on the computer set up across from their beds. "You both need to rest as much as you can. And don't strain yourself."

Tamotsu was about to say something when someone else entered the room, a tall man with hair as bright orange as the girl's, but short and incredibly spiky. His eyebrows were lowered slightly in what seemed an almost habitual frown, but he didn't actually look genuinely angry at all.

"Ryohime," he said, glancing at the two patients. "I need you to run an errand for me. Are you done?"

"Yep, just now, Dad," she replied, turning off the monitor. She nodded to the boys. "Can Erina come in and see them yet? She's been asking all morning."

Her father smiled at her, frown easing. "They're your patients, you make the calls," he said, and she smiled back at him.

"Alright!"

While Ryohime and her father conversed, Chikuma tried to think back. He was still confused as to the events after he had blacked out. One of his hands rose unconsciously to his throat, he could almost feel the claws of that… creature crushing the life out of him. Choking him…

"Hey, guys!"

Chikuma startled as Erina popped up at the door, and he realized the orange-haired doctors had already left.

"Hi, Erina," greeted Tamotsu. Chikuma managed a smile as she came in and sat down between them, despite the pain in his chest and ankle it _was_ good to see her again, safe and sound. He, as always, stayed mostly quiet as Erina chatted with Tamotsu about nothing in particular, somehow all of them understood now wasn't the time to talk about what had happened.

Chikuma has seen ghosts for years, and more then once he had seen large monsters like the one that had attacked them, but never so close. And never had one tried to kill him. He supposed Tamotsu was having an even harder time figuring it all out, seeing as he couldn't even sense their presence. Erina… Chikuma wasn't sure about her. It seemed she could see them, or at least knew they were there.

He sighed and leaned back, letting their chatter wash over him. After they had healed, maybe they would be able to figure this out. Until then…

He let himself sink back into sleep, his injuries wearing him out quickly. His friends' voices faded into the quiet of sleep.

.

Edward tiptoed down the stairs, rubbing the sleep out of his eyes. It was early, still not a hint of dawn in the sky. His parents were both still asleep, and he didn't want to wake them. They needed their rest.

Kuro, his hyper black kitten, was playing by himself in the kitchen, trying to catch his own tail. Edward couldn't help but smile as the silly little cat pounced on the twitching tail, pinning it with both paws until it flicked out of reach and banged against a table leg. The kitten went crazy, nearly knocking himself senseless on the wooden leg as he tried to catch that elusive tail.

Shiro and Ichigo were both asleep by the fireplace, though they hadn't had any fires there in months. It was mid June, yet the kittens still slept in front of the fireplace like it was the most comfortable place in the world.

Edward gave their mother (the family cat) a quick rub on the head as she curled around his legs, walking with him toward the door. Today, every week, Edward got up early for a quick run in the darkness, before dawn, before school, before life in general woke up. His family had found it weird when he started, but gotten used to it soon enough.

Hime left him at the door, more interested in her kittens and the warm house then the brisk pre-dawn air and dewy ground. Edward closed the door quietly behind him and started off down to the sidewalk, eager to get going.

He was heading out of town, as he always did, aiming for a low hill from which he could watch the sunrise. Even when he didn't have time to stay and actually see the sunrise, he went anyway. Just to climb out of regular life for an hour, find some quiet under the branches of that lone ume tree.

He broke into a quick jog, the type he had trained himself to be able to maintain for hours at a time. His breath came easily and steadily as he ran, completely comfortable with the pace.

James, that odd friend of Steve's, was already awake as Edward ran past, in his yard pulling weeds from that pitiful little garden. Edward shook his head to himself as the house fell behind him, wondering what Steve saw in the depressing, scrawny kid.

It was a half-hour run to his tree, right on the outskirts of town. The ume tree was sitting at the top, the ripening fruit stirring gently in the light breeze. Edward slowed at the base of the hill and then began climbing, glancing at the horizon. The sky was definitely lightening. He had made it just in time.

...

Steve groaned and bopped the alarm-clock's snooze button, too tired to trust himself not to go back to sleep. He stared sleepily up at the ceiling, trying to will himself into getting up.

He must have dozed off again, because a few seconds later he was jerking awake with the alarm-clock blaring a second time. He smacked the snooze again, just to shut it up, and then grabbed his glasses from the bedside table, perching them on his nose. He yawned widely and slid out of the covers, turning off the alarm-clock as he did. He could hear someone moving around in the kitchen downstairs, probably his mother. He glanced at the time again, then sighed. He had to get ready.

Edward was back from his weekly run already when Steve shuffled downstairs for breakfast, as always annoyingly awake and perky. Steve nearly tripped as one of Edward's ridiculous kittens ran past under his feet, followed by another. Edward chuckled and nudged the two out of the kitchen.

"Ohayo," he said cheerfully, ignoring the fact that Steve looked like he needed three more hours of sleep. "Beautiful morning, isn't it?"

Steve grunted a reply, adjusting his glasses into a more natural position, then wandered over to where their mother was cooking breakfast.

"Ohayo, sleepyhead," she said fondly, giving his forehead a quick peck before turning back to the stove. "Can you help your brother set the table?"

Steve glanced at the table, which Edward had practically already set, and grabbed a few glasses from the sink.

"Sure…"

Within moments the four place settings were done, and Edward and Steve retreated to the living room so they wouldn't be in the way. The kittens were all there, and even Ichigo was getting frisky. Edward joined them on the floor and wiggled his fingers at them teasingly until they were all tumbling over themselves trying to catch his hands. Steve grabbed his laptop from the couch where it was always sitting and woke it up, eager to get a bit of writing done before breakfast. His script was coming along nicely, but not very quickly. While he waited for everything to load, he watched Edward and the kittens playing, though how his brother could stand those tiny claws digging into his skin constantly was beyond him. It seemed Edward's hands were always bearing the wounds of overly excited baby cats.

Unfortunately for Steve, he had gotten barely three sentences in before the call for breakfast cut through the house. With a sigh he saved the document and shut his laptop again, putting it to the side. Edward hurried to wash his hands as Steve and their father arrived at the same time in the kitchen, ready to eat.

After breakfast, the brothers headed out to start their walk to school. Steve looked back to see if James was heading up the sidewalk, but didn't see any trace of his friend. With a shrug he turned back, certain they would meet up at class.

They were talking about Edward's upcoming karate competition when Steve felt something prickle at the edge of his senses. He frowned slightly and looked behind them, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. A second, more thorough examination of the surrounding buildings, the street, and the sky proved there wasn't anything there that shouldn't be there.

Edward didn't seem to notice, and merely went on about the various local dojos participating in the event. Steve glanced around once more, frowning slightly, then turned back. Nothing looked out of the ordinary… so why did he feel like something was wrong?

He tried to ignore it, but he couldn't escape the nagging feeling. Despite his common sense reassuring him that it was just his mind playing tricks on him, he was on edge until they reached the school.

.

James peered from the shadows of the alley, eyes trained on the many-legged _creature_ across the street. He had felt it earlier in the morning, and, for once, decided to follow it. Maybe it was because he had been attacked, then seen other people being attacked by one the other day, but these things were no longer so easy to ignore.

This one was stalking one of the many spirits that haunted this stretch of road. The spirit was that of a middle-aged woman, and she was just sitting against a building with her chin in her arms, staring blankly into the distance. The creature was crawling toward her down the same building, its mask's huge teeth bared in an eager grin.

James felt the same tug that had pushed him to stop that young woman the other day, an emotion he wasn't sure what to make of just yet. This time was weaker though, and he stayed where he was, fully aware there wasn't much of anything he could do in this situation. They weren't real, one was a spirit and the other… well, no one else seemed to see them, it was an easy assumption to make that it was something similar to a spirit.

Finally, the spirit woman seemed to realize something was wrong. She jerked from her pointless daze and looked up, alarmed. The creature above her screeched in an echoing roar and dropped toward her, claws outstretched. The spirit screamed and ducked out of the way, getting unsteadily to her feet and sprinting away. The creature wasn't ready to give up its intended prey so easily, though, and started after her in pursuit.

James watched, a shiver of cold running through him. He had never seen this before… it seemed these white-faced, no, white-_masked_ creatures were becoming more aggressive, to the living and to the dead. _Or_, he thought, _maybe I am just becoming more aware of what has been happening all along._

Suddenly, another presence slipped into his awareness, somewhere above them. He looked up.

His eyes widened. It was a relatively small, feminine figure, dressed in what looked like a black kimono, tied with a white sash. Her arms were raised over her head, tightly gripping the hilt of a katana-like sword, the blade pointing up toward the sky. James watched, shock paralyzing him, as the girl dropped onto the spirit-monster's head, slashing down with a cry of victory. The monster screamed in response, throwing back its head in agony before suddenly dissipating into the air.

James watched as the spirit the monster had been chasing and the black-clothed girl met, exchanged a few words. He watched as the girl put the hilt of her sword against the spirit's forehead, and he watched as the spirit disappeared in a glow of light. He watched as a single black butterfly rose into the sky, disappearing.

He watched as the girl, her orange hair tied in a ponytail behind her, sheathed her sword and leapt back into the sky. His eyes followed her until she disappeared over the city, and still he could not quite believe it.

_Who exactly_ is_ she?_


	9. Arrancar Interlude 4

Interlude

Yylfordt Granz's Resurrección release faded as he lay in the crater created by his fall. He gasped for breath, but the blood in his throat and lungs made it impossible. Burned, battered and broken by the Lieutenant's Bankai, Yylfordt knew he was dying.

As he was supposed to.

His strength was gone. The hilt of his sword lay on his palm, but he hadn't the energy to close his fingers around it. He couldn't move, could barely breath… there was nothing left for him to do but lie there and die.

He could feel his companions' deaths around him, deaths he knew were unnecessary, though (knowing Szayelaporro) they would undoubtedly be useful somehow to the completion of the plan. Even stronger then that, though, he could feel Grimmjow's rage as he battled the Shinigami Daiko. It made Yylfordt smile. Even though their master knew as much as anyone what they were to achieve with this apparent loss, he was still enraged by their deaths.

"Don't be… too… obvious…" Yylfordy whispered, breaking off into a fit of coughing. Blood seeped out of his mouth, trailing down his chin. It hurt…

Was this their fate, then? If Szayelaporro didn't find another way, was this how it would end for all of them? Grimmjow, so fiercely loyal to his few friends, Ulquiorra, quiet and gloomy, Tesla, eagerly helpful… where they all going to die?

_Find a way, Szayelaporro…_ he thought, no longer able to speak. _Save them… brother…_

His last breath slipped from his lungs, and the blonde Arrancar's eyes closed forever.

.

Szayelaporro was typing the results of a laboratory experiment when he felt his brother die. He stopped, fingers freezing over the keyboard, as the little presence at the back of his mind disappeared. For a moment he stood there unmoving, then he shook himself out of it and flicked over to the terminal he had had set to receive the information collected by the various devices inside Yylfordt. The stream of information was slowing to a crawl as he watched, until it finally stopped all together. Szayelaporro closed his eyes for a moment. That was that. His brother was gone.

He took a deep, shuddering breath, then began shoving all his regrets to the furthest corners of his mind. It had to happen. And from this point on, he couldn't let himself feel any guilt about it. The information he had collected might lead to the success of the only plan he had, and if everything worked out…

But for now, he reminded himself, he mustn't think of it like that. Yylfordt couldn't matter to him anymore, not as far as anyone outside their conspiracy was concerned. A tool, nothing more.

The other strings of data were all closed now too, and Szayelaporro felt a twinge of pain for Grimmjow. None of them had expected, or wanted, all of the Sexta's Fraccions to die, Shawlong at least had been under orders to retreat should too many die to the Shinigami. They were merely the distraction… part of the excuse.

None of them had had the same devices as Yylfordt, only tiny, weaker ones Szayelaporro had managed to sneak into their bloodstreams without them noticing. He would make the most of it, though, he couldn't let their deaths be meaningless.

_This has got to work_…

He was still sorting through the data when he felt Grimmjow's return to Las Noches. The Espada was burning with rage, but Szayelaporro noticed with satisfaction he had been able to disguise it well from the Shinigami accompanying him. Shinigami, however powerful, couldn't read an Arrancar like another Arrancar could. Szayelaporro wondered for a moment if it had really been worth it, then coldly shoved the question away. It _would_ be worth it. He would make sure of it.


	10. Chapter Five

Chapter Five

Vance sat back in his chair, completely bored with the lesson. It was hard enough to pay attention, but that transfer student was always babbling answers right behind him, raising his hand and getting smiled at by the teacher. Vance did not approve.

Vance wished he could just take a nap or something, as Herald was undoubtedly doing in his own class. He didn't _want_ to waste time learning _English_. It was pointless. But with so much attention directed at that teacher's pet behind him, he would never get away with a nap of any length.

Ryohime caught his wandering gaze, two rows across from him, and smiled. Vance gestured with his eyes to the teenager behind him and raised his eyes to the ceiling, prompting a silent chuckle from her.

When the class was finally dismissed, Vance was one of the first ones out. Ryohime followed, meeting him in the hall outside.

"We have to sweep the yard before we can go," she commented , glancing at her watch. "Do you have time before your karate lesson?"

Vance frowned, looking over her shoulder at the time. "I should. If Herald helps this time."

Ryohime shrugged "There weren't enough brooms last time," she said, defending their absent friend, but Vance didn't seem convinved.

"Well, they found out who lost it, and he had to replace it, so this time he will have _no_ excuse."

Ryohime was silent for a moment, then turned slightly to look at him again, smirking. "Hey, guess what!"

"Your dad let you get a puppy," suggested Vance, and Ryohime shook her head.

"If only."

"You met a sane boy," suggested Herald, having approached them from behind unnoticed. He frowned as he rubbed his neck, probably sore from sleeping awkwardly against his desk all lesson. Ryohime turned slightly pink and whacked him in the stomach.

"No!" she said shrilly, sounding unusually feminine at the suggestion. Vance smirked.

"Then what?" he asked. Ryohime crossed her arms.

"We had a few guys brought into the clinic that were hurt in that explosion two days ago, and I talked for a while with the girl that brought them in. Apparently she's one of the members of that… what's-it-called dojo across town you're going to be battling in that competition of yours."

Vance was suddenly interested. "Really? How good did she look?"

"Well, she was certainly athletic-looking," replied Ryohime. "Not a fluffy girl doing it as a hobby. I think it's pretty likely she'll be getting into the competition itself."

Vance grinned. "Interesting. Maybe I should meet this girl myself… do you think she'll be coming by the clinic again?"

Ryohime nodded. "She came over yesterday afternoon and stayed for a while, and I think she was planning on coming this evening too. The clinic isn't too busy anymore, we've got all of two patients, if you wanted to come over for a while I'm sure it would be fine."

Vance nodded absently. "Maybe I will…" he said aloud, thinking of the possible advantages he could get in the competition by talking with one of their rivals.

"I won't be coming," added Herald. "I've got to get home and make sure the old man isn't dead."

"Hey, have you gotten the new Jump yet?" asked Vance suddenly, perking up despite Herald's announcement. "The new _Kami Katana_ chapter was _amazing_!"

Ryohime jumped onto the new subject eagerly. "Oh, you read it too? Wasn't it _great_?! I've been hoping, with all the hints they were dropping, that they were going to bring him back, but I never expected it to be so… so… eeeee!"

Herald gave them both a flat look. "You know I have no idea what you're talking about, right?"

Ryohime and Vance tried to explain the latest, apparently epic chapter of their favourite manga to him, but though they always tried to keep him up-to-date on it he didn't read it himself, and so really didn't understand what they were talking about. There were swords involved, he picked up that much, and dead energy and things that glowed, but beyond that he didn't care to try to pick out the meaning among all Ryohime and Vance's excited speculation.

Their after-school cleaning went quickly, and soon the friends were waving goodbye as they went their separate ways. Ryohime had to get back to her patients, Herald had a bunch of cleaning to do that his laid-back father wouldn't, and Vance had a karate lesson to attend. He didn't want to miss any of them, not if he planned on winning the upcoming karate competition.

He wasn't going to let his dojo lose to those Minami Karakura guys.

.

Ryohime poked her head into the room her two patients were occupying, and was happy to see that Chikuma was still sleeping. He had, without a doubt, had the worst of it, and right now rest was the best thing for him. Tamotsu was awake, though, and reading a book Ryohime had let him borrow. He looked up as she came in and smiled.

"Hello, Ryohime-san," he greeted, and she met his smile with one of her own.

"Ohayo, Tamotsu-san. How are you feeling?"

He shrugged. "Pretty good, actually. My chest still hurts and it's a little hard to breath, but that's about it."

Ryohime nodded as she checked on Chikuma. "That's good. How're you liking the book?"

"I've never really read much fantasy or scifi, but it's pretty interesting so far," he admitted. "I like the way they've combined magic and technology, and all the people exploiting it."

"Did you know they're making an anime based on it?" she asked, hoping he wasn't just being polite and actually had no interest in it at all.

Her fears were groundless.

"Really?" he asked, sounding excited. "Is it well done?"

Ryohime thought for a minute. "It's pretty new, I've only seen a few episodes, but from what I _have_ seen it looks pretty close to the series. They've got a pretty good animation study doing it, too."

"I'll have to look it up," Tamotsu mused.

"It's called _Kage no Tenshi_. You should be able to find it pretty easily, it's gotten pretty popular ever since the anime came out." Ryohime finished her checklist and started for the door, pausing to look back before leaving. "Are you hungry? I could bring something up…"

Tamotsu shook his head. "No, thank you. Kurosaki-sensei brought lunch while you were gone."

Ryohime smiled. "Of course he did. Well, just beep me if you need anything."

"Alright."

Ryohime closed the door behind her, then headed for the door. She hoped nothing would interrupt the rest of her afternoon, her outing yesterday had put her a bit behind in homework and she wanted to catch up.

The house, built right into the side of the little clinic, was deserted when she went in. The lights were all off and there was no noise. Still, she was used to it. Her dad was probably at the clinic doing office work, and her mother had been dead for years. It was often just Ryohime there in the afternoons, except for the rare occasions when Vance and Herald came over for a visit. But those visits were getting rarer and rarer now that they were older, and Vance had his afternoon classes and Herald… well, Herald was taking care of everything at _his_ house.

She collected her schoolbooks and notes and set up her work area in the living room, preferring to be closer to the door so she would know when her dad got home.

She was hit with an unusual surge of nostalgia as she caught a glance of the photos on the mantle. There were a few of her grandfather and aunts, a few more of her dad and her, but the one that caught and held her attention was the one in the middle, of her father and mother. It was dusk, and they were sitting under a sakura tree with the cemetery shrine visible on a hill behind them. They were wearing traditional kimonos, her father was actually, genuinely smiling, and her mother had her eyes closed, laughing.

That had been before everything. Before she was born, before the accident… before she had lost the person that had mattered most to her. Things had changed since then, but she still felt an ache of loneliness in her chest every time she thought about it.

She shook her head, pointedly bringing herself back to the present. There would never be a way for her to go back to how things were before. Everything had changed since then, _she_ had changed, and she believed she had changed in a way she could be proud of.

_I won't forget my promise_, she thought fiercely. _Even if it takes us our whole lives, we _will_ make it right. I promised…_

.

Ruhiyo Yoshirou tried to act casual as he and his Sensei walked down the street, trying to ignore the wandering souls mingling with the clueless humans all around them. He could feel the reiatsu of several relatively strong souls in the town, though they seemed nothing more then human. There was one, though, that felt abnormally like that of a Shinigami.

Just like him, actually.

"Why are we even here, Sensei?" he asked, and there was a moment's silence before the woman next to him replied.

"We're here to locate some… old friends. Karakura is the obvious meeting place, but they don't seem to be here yet…"

Yoshirou looked around at the incredibly average town. "This place? It hardly seems remarkable, Sensei, why would this be an obvious meeting place?"

His teacher merely closed her eyes in that way of hers, like she did whenever she wanted to detach herself from whatever anyone was saying at the moment. A minute later, she stopped walking beside a small store.

"Yoshirou, I'm afraid I'm going to have to leave you for a few days. I need to contact someone, and I can travel faster alone."

Yoshirou nodded, used to her disappearances by now, and she put a hand on his shoulder for a moment before turning away.

"Good. Just stay in Karakura and try not to draw attention to yourself. And I should warn you, there is another Shinigami Daiko living in town, and you should probably try not to interfere with her work, if you can help it. Remain human, unless it is an emergency."

"Hai, Sensei."

With a satisfied nod, his guardian started walking back the way they came. Yoshirou took a breath and, feeling the pressure of survival on his own shoulders yet again, mentally searched out a place with the smallest concentration of spiritual energy and headed there, meaning to find somewhere to lay low until these… 'friends' arrived.

He wondered how he was supposed to recognize them when they got here, but, as always, he ended up merely trusting his sensei knew what she was doing. He would wait, and when the time came, he would somehow know what he was supposed to do.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have left him on his own.


	11. Arrancar Interlude 5

_Interlude_

The blue-haired Arrancar screamed his fury at the sky, trying to release all his pain and anger to the darkness of their desert home. It had been hard enough, standing in that cursed Shinigami's presence and trying to maintain the lie, having to lie inside the lie that it was loyalty to Aizen that had led him to take his men to the World of the Living. It was Aizen's fault Shawlong and the others had died! It was his fault the Arrancar were trapped in this existence of military servitude, that they had to put on this stupid charade just in order to survive!

His hand was clutching the open wound Tōsen's sword had left, the place where his left arm should be. The pain was excruciating, only made worse by the vicious burn on his lower back where his ranking had once been shown. The Shinigami thought they owned the Arrancar, that they could do what they wanted and the Espada would have to go along with it because Aizen was 'all-powerful'. It was more then Grimmjow could stand. His Fraccions were all dead, his arm and ranking had been taken from him, and Aizen was merely smiling down on everything as if it were all part of his plan.

"I'm going to kill you," he snarled into the desert wind, breathing heavily as his blood dripped to the ground. "Tōsen Kaname… I am going to kill you!"

The blind Shinigami had stopped him in the middle of his fight, accused him, attacked him, and Grimmjow had had no choice but to stand down because Aizen said so. Tōsen would die… and that purple-eyed Shinigami girl that had killed D-Roy. And the white-haired captain who had killed Shawlong. And those two lieutenants… and that third-seat and fifth seat… and…

_Kurosaki Ichigo._

Kurosaki Ichigo. Grimmjow's teeth bared in a feral grin. Of all the people he wanted to kill, Kurosaki was actually just on his list for satisfaction's sake. Tōsen and Aizen had trampled on his pride as a Vasto Lorde, the Shinigami had slaughtered his Fraccions, even after Shawlong had called the retreat. But Kurosaki? Grimmjow had no feud with him, and yet…

"Grimmjow."

Grimmjow stiffened. "What do you want, Ulquiorra?"

The Fourth Espada said nothing for a moment, then sighed lightly and stepped forward until he was standing next to (but several feet away from) Grimmjow.

"Szayelaporro says he may be able to regenerate your arm, but that it would take some time."

Grimmjow hissed through his teeth. "I know. Go away."

Ulquiorra looked at him for a moment, then turned away, apparently perfectly willing to comply. Grimmjow half expected him to say something more, but the only sound was that of Ulquiorra's footsteps as he walked back to Las Noches.

Grimmjow growled, completely unsatisfied with the result of Szayelaporro's plan so far, and took his hand away from his bleeding shoulder. His blood covered his hand, dripped onto the ground. With an angry snarl he broke into a sprint, out into the wild plains of Hueco Mundo. He let himself merely act, losing himself in instinct to escape harsh reality. He was no longer Espada, it didn't matter any more. His Fraccions were gone, it didn't matter any more.

A Hollow roared in the distance, and Grimmjow swerved towards it. His eyes narrowed, his teeth were clenched together. Szayelaporro's plan… Aizen's plan… the Shinigami's plan… none of it mattered anymore. He climbed to the top of a dune and saw a hunting adjuchas below. With a scream of pure rage he pounced, wrapping his remaining arm around the dog-like neck, biting down with human teeth. The adjuchas screamed and thrashed beneath him, trying to defend itself, but Grimmjow was stronger, even with only one arm. A minute later he rose from his victim, chin stained with adjuchas blood, but he had no appetite, not like when _he_ had been adjuchas. No, not adjuchas. When he had been Hollow. Before he even known about the existence of Arrancar.

The kill didn't satisfy.

He threw his head back and howled, all his frustration, all his pain, all his loss. He would never be satisfied until Aizen was dead or gone, until the Shinigami were out of his life forever.

_Do whatever you need to do, Szayelaporro! And if you need another subject, call on me. Anything to escape this Shinigami nightmare!_


	12. Chapter Six

Chapter Six

Yoshirou woke with a start. He began to reach for his pocket, and the green orb inside, but he hesitated.

It was a Hollow, he could sense its presence, but he wasn't supposed to hunt it, not here. The town had its own protector, it should only be a matter of time…

Even as he thought it, trying to persuade himself, the presence abruptly faded away. He sighed in relief, glad to know the local Shinigami was active.

_This is going to take some getting used to._

He rose from the bench he had spent the night, wishing he could have found somewhere a little more comfortable. Fortunately it had been a warm night, even in his plain clothing he hadn't gotten chilled. He looked around, wondering what to do while he waited for either his mentor to return, or these 'friends' to show up.

His stomach growled, and he smiled wryly. He could hardly let himself starve while waiting. He dug into his pocket and found the wallet of flat bills his teacher had entrusted him with. Yoshirou had carried them a long way, and he was well used to buying his own food and lodgings during the long absences his teacher was prone to taking. This was no exception.

He straightened his jacket and started down the street, keeping an eye out for a restaurant or store he could get some food at. It was early still, he saw several children and teenagers in school uniforms walking along the sidewalks, and Yoshirou made the logical conclusion that they were going to school. He felt himself very lucky to have avoided such a thing, those uniforms looked uncomfortable.

Suddenly he felt an almost unusually strong reiatsu (at least for a human) and frowned. Was this one of the presences he had felt the other day? He looked around and spotted the person that seemed to be unknowingly releasing the energy.

It was a teenaged boy, appearing about the same age as Yoshirou himself, with loose black hair and downcast eyes. Yoshirou frowned as he noticed the souls walking, or floating, alongside him. He had never seen a person collect so many at one time, and this boy didn't have _that_ high a pressure. And he had never seen such an exclusively… gloomy bunch of souls. It was as if the boy had created around him such an air of sadness the most miserable souls out there gravitated toward him, as if they had found a living being capable of understanding the depths of their sorrow.

The dark-haired boy seemed to feel Yoshirou's eyes on him, for he looked up and met his gaze as they passed. Yoshirou was trapped for a moment in the sheer… emptiness of those eyes, then their gaze broke and the boy brushed past him. Yoshirou took a deep breath, realizing that he had stopped breathing for some reason.

Then he stiffened as he felt a Hollow tearing through the sky into the World of the Living.

He glanced up, hand automatically going to his pocket. He couldn't see it yet, but he could feel it. He could almost feel its hunger, and somehow he knew it was targeting them.

The street was mostly empty, only a few other people nearby besides him and the dark-haired boy. He bit his lip as he felt the Hollow coming nearer, and his body was tensing as his natural urge to jump into soul form and fight back kicked in.

_No, I mustn't draw attention to myself. I have to let the local girl take care of it._

Suddenly, the Hollow appeared on top of a nearby building. Yoshirou looked around, desperately hoping the other Shinigami would show up. He was so distracted he didn't notice the dark-haired boy had also stopped, also locked his gaze on the Hollow.

The other Shinigami wasn't in sight, the Hollow was too close for comfort. Yoshirou plunged his hand into his pocket and plucked the Gikongan from its case, gritting his teeth in frustration.

_I'm sorry, Sensei._

With a swift movement, he slipped the green orb between his lips and swallowed. Moments later he had leapt into the air, drawing the narrow Zanpakuto from its sheath across his lower back. The Hollow roared as he approached, raising a massive claw to try to smash him out of the air. Yoshiro flipped over the surprisingly quick attack and flashed his sword out to one side, severing the offending arm. The Hollow bellowed again, lunging at him with its remaining three arms outstretched. Yoshirou switched hands neatly and blocked the first blow, turning his blade to slice through the Hollow's fingers. Then he slipped under the other two arms and raised his free hand, pointing.

"Hado no Yon, Byakurai!"

A small bolt of blue lightning burst from his fingertip, blasting the reaching claw away and burning a hole right through it. Before the Hollow could recover, Yoshirou leapt up eye-level with it and slashed his sword down, splitting its mask in half.

The Hollow managed a last roar of agony before disintegrating. Yoshirou sheathed his Zanpakuto and looked down to where his soul daiko was waiting with his body.

And the dark-haired boy.

Yoshirou knew he could see him, the boy's eyes were locked right on him. He swallowed, wondering how he could explain this. Before he could think of anything, though, the boy broke the look and tucked his hands into his pockets, turning to continue walking as if nothing had happened. Yoshirou motioned hastily for his substitute to head for the nearest alley, and met it there.

As he spat the soul-candy back into his palm, carefully drying it on a cloth, he wondered if this incident would make trouble for him later on. Still, no one had noticed except for that one teenaged boy… and he hardly looked like the sort who would tell just anyone about unusual events.

At least, that was what Yoshirou kept telling himself. That was what he kept hoping.

.

Steve and James sat in the quiet corner of the café, playing chess. Edward was having lunch with some of the other people in his karate class nearby, so unfortunately it wasn't quite as quiet as either of them would have liked.

James sat examining the position carefully, and Steve smirked a little as he imagined his friend trying to get a win out of this. It was a rare occurrence for Steve to beat James at chess, a game requiring a lot of strategic thinking and understanding, both attributes James had in abundance, but Steve had been practicing and was pretty confident with his position this game.

"You've been practicing," stated James, moving a pawn up in a move that nearly stunned Steve with its complete uselessness and irrelevance to his current dilemma.

"Correct," Steve replied, moving a bishop across the board. "I can't have my pride as a genius taking such serious blows every time I play chess with you."

"Your family doesn't like to lose, does it…" replied James, the phrase more a statement of fact then a question. Steve smiled as his dark-haired friend moved a rook across to threaten the approaching bishop. All according to plan…

"No, we don't," he said, moving his queen into position. There, now only one more turn and his trap would be in place. James would be stuck in an unbreakable web of checks, and to delay the checkmate would require him to sacrifice…

James pushed that pawn up another square.

Steve froze.

He hmmed and examined the new position, tilting his head to one side. James watched him silently. Steve tapped his finger and continued examining. James continued watching.

A moment passed.

"Your move," said James, as if somehow Steve had missed that fact. Steve grunted a reply and adjusted his glasses, thinking hard.

_I can still do this, I just need to close up that one gap in my trap. His pawn is guarding that space… I can't move my knight there now. Think… think…_

Steve slowly pushed another piece into position, thinking he could still salvage this plan, it would just take a little longer.

James blinked at the move. "You've gotten flustered," he said calmly, moving his queen halfway across the board to a position previously guarded by the piece Steve had just moved. "Checkmate."

Steve frowned, certain there had to be some way out of this apparent checkmate. James hadn't had the time to build a winning position, he had been constantly reacting to Steve's attacks! But as he examined the board, he came to realize that, somehow, James _had_ blocked every escape, defended every position… Steve couldn't do a thing.

He slumped back in his chair, shaking his head in amazement. "How do you _do_ that?" he asked admiringly. James' lips twitched into a smile and he picked up his glass of ice water.

"I strategize. You were acting this entire time with a plan, and I went along with it. You got distracted by your apparent success and didn't notice I was preparing my own attack until the ending moves. By then it was too late."

Steve sighed in defeat. "You're so _devious_, you know that?"

James' smile widened just slightly, but he didn't respond as he began shuffling the pieces around, white on Steve's side, black on his own.

"Yo!"

Steve jumped slightly, turning to see his big brother standing next to him with one of the girls from the karate class. He closed his eyes for a moment, regaining his composure, then looked expectantly at Edward.

"What do you need?"

Edward jerked his head at the young woman with him. "She said she wanted to meet the two of you, so I thought I'd introduce you." He glanced at her. "Erina, this is my brother Steve, and his friend James. Steve, James, meet Erina. She goes to the same dojo I do."

Erina smiled at them. "Nice to meet you. Do you mind if I join you?"

Steve glanced at Edward, who was obviously more interested in heading back to the table with the rest of his male karate friends, and shook his head, gesturing. Erina drew up a chair from another table and sat down on the unclaimed side of the table. Edward quickly left the three of them to talk.

"I wanted to be able to thank you properly, James, for helping me out the other day," Erina said bluntly, looking at the quiet boy with a smile. "You sort of hurried off that night before I could get your name."

"You're welcome," he said, not looking up from his resetting on the chessboard. Steve looked between them with a raised eyebrow.

"Wait, how do you know James?" he asked. Somehow he had been under the illusion James didn't have, or want, any more friends.

"He helped save the lives of my best friends," replied Erina, eyes widening seriously. "We were attacked and he helped me carry them to the clinic afterwards."

Steve looked at James in surprise. "Why haven't you said anything about it?" he asked, and James looked up, eyebrows lowered in a slight frown.

"Because it wasn't important," he said, then motioned at the chessboard. "White plays first."

"Not important?" asked Erina, sounding almost insulted. "I doubt Chikuma and Tamotsu will think it wasn't important. Don't you take any pride in helping to save their lives?"

James turned his dead-eyed glare on her. "Pride is a useless emotion that just gets people into trouble," he said shortly. "The day I feel pride for something done in this pointless existence is the day death stops haunting every step mankind takes."

Erina was taken aback by his passive vehemence and strange conclusion. She didn't say anything as he turned back to the barely started chess game.

"He's just in a really gloomy mood because his fish died," Steve whispered to her.

"I… see," she whispered back.

.

Yoshirou sat back against the tree, one arm resting on his raised knee. He had found a beautiful spot to watch the sunset, on a little hill with its own little ume tree. Well, big ume tree. He was able to watch the sun setting over the hills, Karakura invisible on the other side of the tree.

It had been an interesting day. He had spent much of it merely wandering around, exploring the city, though he had found a small, quiet park during the late morning to study under. His mentor had left him several lessons worth of notes on Seireitei history to keep him busy, and Yoshirou didn't want to disappoint her when she came back. He had also found a very nice little shop where he had gotten his lunch, and he fully intended to go there again when he needed to.

It was nice, being on his own again. He had been worried about being left in a city by himself, but it wasn't actually too much different from being left at one of their secluded little homes by himself. Only here, there was a hundred times more things to see, places to explore.

Souls and Hollows that needed a Shinigami to take care of them.

It was hard, very hard, to not jump into soul form as soon as he saw a wandering soul on the road, or every time he felt the distant presence of a Hollow. He had never been in a place where he wasn't permitted to help unless it was an emergency. It was a strange, almost helpless feeling he didn't like at all.

Still… there was one thing he felt he had to do.

He closed his eyes and relaxed, letting his body slip into a natural position against the tree. Then he reached into his pocket.

There was a jerk as he swallowed the Gikongan, and he stood up to brush himself off. His body, now controlled by the Gikon, winked one eye open to look up at him.

"Going somewhere, Chibi-sama?" he asked in his usual, sly voice, and Yoshirou glared at him.

"Just stay here and pretend to be asleep," he said, adjusting his zanpakuto's position. "I'll be back, but there's something I have to do."

"San-sama said we were supposed to stay in our respectively native states unless it was an emergency, Chibi-sama," replied the artificial soul. "I don't see any Hollows around."

"Just do what you're told, Kitsune!" Yoshirou snapped, and the Gikon leaned back comfortable against the tree.

"I was just warnin' ya," he said casually, closing his eyes and smiling. "I'm not gonna be the one San-sama gets upset at, and it is _such_ a nice evening…"

Yoshirou rolled his eyes and started off at a run down the hill. A last teasing call from Kitsune made him grit his teeth in displeasure.

"You take care of yourself, Chibi-sama!"


	13. Arrancar Interlude 6

_Interlude_

Szayelaporro's eyes widened in shock. "You've done _what_?!"

Tesla twiddled his thumbs awkwardly, trying to avoid the accusatory gaze of the ringleaders. "Don't be so alarmed," he said in a tone he hoped to be calming. "I wouldn't have told him if I didn't know we could trust him."

Grimmjow slammed a hand into the table, sending a spiderweb of cracks through it. "He's an obnoxious cheater!" he snarled, leaning toward Tesla angrily. "There's a _reason_ we didn't talk to him about it in the first place! Are you going to suggest we tell _Barragan_ next?!"

Tesla's eyes narrowed angrily. "He's my master!" he snapped back, matching Grimmjow's glare. "I am _not_ going to stand by and let Nnoitra-sama fall for Aizen's sake when we have a plan that could save him!"

"But you put all of us at risk," interjected Szayelaporro, "by telling Nnoitra when none of us had made sure it was safe."

Tesla redirected his glare. "He won't give us up, I know it. He hates this situation as much as any of us, I've heard him! Believe me, he can help."

"You should have come to one of us first," said Ulquiorra mildly, eyes still closed as he sat straight-backed across the table from them. "If you had suggested it reasonably we would not have rejected the idea out of hand, but I must insist you do not approach a potential ally without our approval first."

"H-hai," said Tesla, more meekly. He looked down. "But… you will talk to him, right? He seemed interested… well, as much as Nnoitra-sama is interested in anything…"

Szayelaporro sighed, dropping back into his chair. "Yes, yes, I can go talk to him. Now that you've let him in on part of the secret we need to make sure he's all the way in."

Vega, who had been leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, came up to the table between Grimmjow and Ulquiorra.

"I know it's out of the question we say a word of this to Barragan," he said, "but what about Abirama or Findorr?"

Szayelaporro shook his head. "They are too loyal to Barragan, or at least, they appear too loyal for us to risk approaching them with something like this. I never would have let you in myself, but you were the one that approached _me_. Gomen'nasai, Vega, but I don't think we can risk it. There are already so many involved… more and we risk a leak. That must not happen."

Vega shrugged, crossing his arms again. "Alright, just thought I'd ask."

Grimmjow, still upset at the Nnoitra thing, looked at Szayelaporro. "How are you coming on a realistic way to escape Aizen's rule?"

Szayelaporro stood and began pacing, hands held behind his back. "Not as well as I would have liked, your little excursion into the desert made it clear to us that he knows exactly when we leave and where we go outside Las Noches. I don't know how far away we would have to be to get outside his range, but any number of us leaving for any reason would raise suspicion. I have considered using the World of the Living as a way to escape his influence, but we would then have to deal with the captain-level Shinigami dispatched to slaughter us." He sighed. "Unfortunately, we are in a very difficult situation. Aizen would kill us in an instant if he thought we were disloyal, the Shinigami would seek to destroy us merely because we are Hollow. We cannot escape from Las Noches, and there is nowhere out there for us to go if we somehow were able to."

There was a moment of silence.

"Couldn't we disguise, or repress, our own reiatsu and make it more difficult for him to track us?" suggested Tesla, breaking the pause. Szayelaporro hmmed.

"The problem isn't our own power of presence," he said, "but Aizen's. It would be _harder_, yes, but he could still sense our presence inside Las Noches. But think about it. Half of his Espada and a number of Fraccions repressing their reiatsu so as to disappear would surely attract as much attention as if we tried to leave naturally."

"You have already proven you have the capabilities to bring us to a place Aizen cannot hear or see us," stated Ulquiorra. "Can we not use this to our advantage?"

Szayelaporro looked pained, and continued pacing. "It's a good thought, but unfortunately it doesn't quite work like that. This room, and the halls outside, are removed from normal space, and from outside it would feel like we have not left the rooms that we were in before entering my warped dimension. The only truly stable version of this I have is my main lab, everything else I can only maintain for a limited time, and has to have stable boundaries which I have been setting as the real walls and rooms in Las Noches. To try taking this into the desert would result in the whole thing collapsing, like water when the walls of the cup disappear."

"Can't you find a way to stabilize it?" asked Grimmjow impatiently, and Szayelaporro rounded on him.

"Can you maintain the flexibility of water when turning it to ice?! These are rules of reality, I _cannot_ use this second dimension without real, solid borders. We _cannot_ use it to hide our movements in the desert."

The room fell silent again.

Finally Ulquiorra stood, pushing back his chair. "I trust you will think of something, eventually," he said, turning to leave.

Grimmjow scowled as he, too, rose. "If only we could just rip those vile Shinigami to shreds…" he muttered as he stomped out the door, neatly turning the comments into his usual discontented, but not actually treacherous, complaining as soon as he passed the threshold. Vega and Tesla followed a few minutes later, and finally Szayelaporro, slowly, deep in thought.

There had to be something they were missing. There_ had to be_!


	14. Chapter Seven

Chapter Seven

"Time to get up, Hime!"

Ryohime groaned and turned over, pulling the covers over her head. "It's Saturday, Dad! I want to sleep!"

An energetic knocking on her door made her huddle even deeper.

"But breakfast is getting cold and you've got patients you have to check on!"

"Patients I spent hours healing when I could have been sleeping," she protested loudly, grabbing her pillow closer. "I'm tired…"

There was no response, so Ryohime took that as permission to go back to sleep and proceeded to do so.

Then she shot into a sitting position, eyes wide, as she felt the unmistakable reiatsu of a Hollow. A pretty strong one. And it was close.

She tumbled out of bed and hastily grabbed the badge from her bedside table. As long as she was in her own home, she preferred to go into soul form without leaving a Gikon in charge of her body. She, understandably, found it creepy.

Soon she was leaping out the window, landing on thin air before dashing off toward the source of the Hollow reiatsu. Her Zanpakuto, comfortably situated across her back, bounced against her with every running stride.

The Hollow was a large one, and exceptionally ugly even for a Hollow. Its large, toothy mask was the only solid-color part of it, the rest being a dappled brown with mixes of green and red. It had a large fin-like ridge on its back, as well, which made Ryohime wonder if it was supposed to resemble some kind of disgusting deep sea fish-creature. Whatever it was, she knew she would enjoy making it disappear.

It had a young spirit boy in one tentacle-like claw, and was chasing after another, this one female. Ryohime drew her Zanpakuto and dropped down toward the vile creature, aiming for its mask. The Hollow seemed to notice her attack, however, and reared back just in time to avoid the blow. Ryohime adjusted her own fall and instead brought her sword crashing down on the arm grabbing the boy, severing it completely. The Hollow roared and lashed out at her, enraged by her interference.

Ryohime jumped out of the way of the attack, then retaliated with a deep slash to its other tentacle arm. The blow didn't go all the way through, though, and the Hollow jerked away, its unusually tough skin catching and yanking her Zanpakuto from her grasp. She yelped and dove after it, only to be smacked away by a second pair of arms. She tumbled through the air and crashed into the side of a building across the street, knocking the breath out of her.

The Hollow screamed and wrapped a tentacle around the Zanpakuto, still embedded in its flesh. Ryohime realized what it was planning and rushed to try and stop it, but she was too dizzy from being slammed into a building. With another roar, the Hollow yanked the sword from its tentacle and threw it viciously away from them both. Ryohime's heart jumped as she lost sight of her Zanpakuto as it flew over the nearby buildings, and desperately she tried to run after it.

The Hollow wasn't about to let her get away so easily, though, an unarmed Shinigami would make a nice little treat. It snaked a long tentacle after her and curled around her leg, yanking her out of the air. She shuddered at the feeling of the damp limb and slammed her other heel into it, hoping to make it let go of her, or at least loosen its grasp. She accomplished neither.

_That's what I get for trying to take on a strong Hollow while I'm half asleep_, she thought grumpily to herself as the Hollow began drawing her towards it, a satisfied snarl of anticipation making its already hideous face even more hideous.

.

James woke up early with a most unusual feeling. He got up, got dressed, started making himself breakfast… and then realized what it was that felt so off. There were no spirits sobbing to themselves in the corner.

He frowned and sat down to enjoy his rice and eggs, wondering to himself where the annoying things had gotten to. He spent a quiet hour after breakfast reading before the silence began getting on his nerves, then he put on his shoes and headed out for a walk.

It was a nice day, at least. The sky was bright blue, with little wispy clouds that were so insubstantial they hardly cast shadows. The sun was still climbing from the horizon and, though dawn had long since passed, buildings often obscured it from view. James liked the shade the buildings cast, there was something quiet and peaceful about it.

It was a beautiful example of a morning in late June, and James realized he hadn't been out to enjoy such a morning for a while. It was a nice break from the darkness of his basement, even more so without the constant presence of those depressed souls hanging around him.

Which got him back wondering what had happened to them. As annoying as they were, as much as he had tried to ignore their existence, it felt wrong that they should just disappear. Had something happened to destroy them? Or maybe they had just all moved on to someone else. That was a possibility.

For half an hour he walked quietly along, thoughts flicking from one thing to another in a chain anyone who didn't thoroughly understand him would have found very confusing. He wondered for a moment if Steve would want to do something later, then set the notion aside for until it was _actually_ later.

A moment later, he realized that he was tensing. He frowned, purposefully trying to relax, but it was like someone was making a very high-pitched noise, something he didn't recognize was putting him on edge. He stuck his hands in his pockets and looked around suspiciously, but didn't see anything that unusual. The street was empty, and there was only one person nearby, a boy sleeping under a tree in the park.

James glanced back at said boy, suddenly suspicious. It was the same boy from the other evening… the one that had somehow turned into two people and killed that monster with an antique sword. And had shot lightning out of his finger.

Now, that was odd.

_Why do I keep running into these things?_ James asked himself, turning away. _Spirits, monsters with white masks, monster fighters with orange hair, monster fighters with black kimonos…_

Something suddenly smashed into the ground behind him, and James nearly fell trying to turn too quickly. Between him and the park, there was now a katana with a purple hilt, sticking out of the pavement and quivering from the sudden impact. James blinked. _How… unexpected_.

He heard the footsteps and looked up, just in time to see the light-haired teenager that had been resting in the park running towards him. James hastily ducked aside, and the other ran past, snatching the katana out of the ground as he passed.

"Sumimasen!" he called back at James. James wasn't sure what he was apologizing for, but as the young man was no longer in a range James felt comfortable replying in anyway, he decided not to let it bother him.

He turned to continue his walk… then stopped. He looked back in the direction the other young man had run, the direction from which the uncomfortable feeling originated. For a moment he stood undecided, torn between ignoring this strange side of the world he had been coming to see, and trying to understand it.

A moment later he began walking. Following the source of the disquiet in his soul.

.

Yoshirou didn't mean to get involved, he really hadn't, but it was impossible for him to sit back while someone was being losing to a Hollow. He had thought whoever the other Shinigami was, she would be able to handle herself against a Hollow of this strength, but when he had felt that sudden decrease in the Shinigami's reiatsu, when the Zanpakuto had fallen from the sky, he had instantly realized he needed to help.

This was an emergency, Yoshirou knew his teacher would agree.

Kitsune ran below him, but was quickly falling behind due to Yoshirou's superior speed as a Shinigami. Yoshirou glanced down at him, then ahead, then down again.

"I am going on ahead, I'll meet you there!" he called down, and the Gikon smiled widely at him.

"If you say so, Chibi-sama. Best be quick, though. If you take too long, I might have to help you, _again_."

_Why couldn't you have given my a nice, relatively normal Gikon like… Chappy? This thing has _way_ too much personality…_

Yoshirou's mental complaining to his far-distant master was cut short as he saw the battle up ahead, if it could be called that. He reached back and grasped the hilt of his Zanpakuto, wishing desperately he had flash step. The Hollow had a girl, mid-teens probably, grasped in one of its long tentacles, and Yoshirou could hear her faint screaming as it slowly crushed the life from her.

"Ye lord! Mask of flesh and bone…" he chanted quickly, holding out his hand so the palm was aimed at the Hollow's head. "…flutter of wings, ye who bears the name of Man! Truth and temperance, upon this sinless wall of dreams unleash but slightly the wrath of your claws.

"Hadō no sanju-san, Sōkatsui!"

The Hollow bellowed in pain as a blast of blue fire slammed into the side of its head, almost knocking it off its feet. Yoshirou stumbled slightly, the mid-level kido spell was far higher then he had mastered yet, and was more draining on him that it would be on a real Shinigami. But his purpose in launching the risky attack was to distract the Hollow from its intended victim, and in that he succeeded.

By now he was close enough to draw his Zanpakuto, which he did, dodging the first attack the Hollow tried and slashing across its nearest tentacle. This enraged the beast and it lunged at him, intending to crush him.

Yoshirou met it head on, wielding in one hand his Zanpakuto, in the other the Zanpakuto of the other Shinigami daiko. He wasn't trained in duel-wielding, but against such a mindless brute you needed little. He jumped up through the incoming wave of tentacles and slashed with both swords, slicing and severing anything that got too close. Then he was level with the Hollow's face, and he abandoned the second sword so as to grip his own with both hands.

The Hollow tried to avoid the blow, but Yoshirou was too close. With one powerful downward swing he cut through the Hollow's mask completely, and with the usual, last disbelieving roar, the Hollow disintegrated into black particles that faded into the wind.

Yoshirou moved to catch the girl, but she landed neatly on the ground before he came close. She ran over to her dropped Zanpakuto and picked it up, brushing off the dust before sheathing it. Then she turned to examine Yoshirou.

"Hi," he said, somewhat nervously, as he lowered himself to the ground again.

"Yo," she replied, tilting her head slightly in his direction. "Who are you?"

Yoshirou sheathed his Zanpakuto and bowed to her formally. "Ruhiyo Yoshirou," he said, "Shinigami daiko."

The girl's eyes widened in surprise. "Oh, there are more daikos running around? I thought it was just me and…" she cut herself off, shaking her head. "Where are my manners? I am Kurosaki Ryohime, also a Shinigami daiko. Thanks for stepping in like that."

Now it was Yoshirou's turn to look disbelieving. "K-Kurosaki?" he stuttered. "As in… related to Kurosaki Ichigo?"

Ryohime frowned slightly. "Yeah… that's my father."

Yoshirou's eyes widened significantly. "You are… Ichigo's _daughter_?" For a moment he stood there, stunned, then dropped to his knees and bowed. "I-it's an honor to meet you!"

Ryohime looked at him like he had lost his mind. "Stop that!" she said uncomfortably. "Why are you bowing? Get up!"

Yoshirou looked up at her, absolute awe shining in his eyes. "But you're his _daughter_! The daughter of the most famous human known in Seireitei, the hero that defeated…"

He stopped suddenly, as if struck with a sudden realization. Ryohime had averted her gaze, head bowed slightly, and he rocked back on his heels.

"I'm sorry, I was being insensitive," he said, bowing again. "Gomen'nasai."

"That's all ancient history," she said, a tone of bitterness in her voice.

"I know," he replied, rising back to his feet. "May I try again?" He held out a hand, smiling hopefully at her. "It's very nice to meet you, Ryohime-san."

Ryohime looked at him for a moment, then cracked a slight smile and took his hand.

"Nice to meet you too."

* * *

{Author's Note}

In the next update, I am introducing a third kind of chapter: "After Interludes". After Interludes are, obviously, after the interlude each week, in the same update but with very different content. They are inversely italicized, with normal text indicating thoughts or inner-world content, italicized being actions and speech. While they may start out being confusing, the content should be significantly explained later on.


	15. Arrancar Interlude 7 and After-Interlude

_Interlude_

Szayelaporro didn't even notice when Ulquiorra entered the room. He continued working busily until he happened to turn to grab something from the table behind him and saw the slim Espada standing in the doorway, hands in his pockets, his expression incredibly mild, staring at him.

Szayelaporro wasn't quite able to match Ulquiorra's calm demeanor. He gave a startled yelp and dropped a vial of liquid which shattered on impact with the floor, sending shards of glass and splashes of acid everywhere.

"Don't! Startle! Me!" Szayelaporro screeched as he jumped up on one foot, trying to avoid the acid while nursing his cut foot. "What are you doing standing there like some kind of ghost and then scaring me?! Do you know how dangerous that was?! It took me ages to collect that!"

Ulquiorra stood silently through the scientist's long rant, taking it in stride. When Szayelaporro finally stopped for breath, staring in dismay at the holes in his floor, Ulquiorra took advantage of the opportunity.

"Our time is short, Aizen-sama is preparing to make the first move towards his war."

Szayelaporro hesitated, then knelt down to pick up the pieces of glass that were scattered about on the floor.

"Oh? How interesting," he said carefully. He heard Ulquiorra's soft sigh, and then footsteps across the tiled floor.

"You may speak freely, Szayelaporro, I have redirected Gin-sama's spying devices for a short time. Aizen is not going to wait for much longer, and when he begins we are all going to be thrust into a battle none of us want. Do you have any plan yet?"

Szayelaporro rose to his feet, putting the fragments of glass on one of his desks with a sigh. "Not much of one, I am afraid. Have I ever told you about Operation Assassination?"

Ulquiorra looked at him blankly. "No."

The pink-haired scientist flicked his long bangs out of his eyes, settling into a chair. "It _was_ a while ago. You may be familiar, however, with Neliel Tu Oderschvank, once the Third Espada."

Ulquiorra did not reply to the implied question, and Szayelaporro didn't wait to try to make him.

"Even then I was uncomfortable following a Shinigami, for any reason, but I also knew I couldn't just leave. It would never be allowed. Nnoitra, I discovered, shared my distaste for the Shinigami, but it was _Neliel_ that approached me about trying to find a way safely out of Aizen's web."

"Neliel…"

"Yes. She, Nnoitra and I worked out an elaborate scheme within a scheme that resulted in Neliel, apparently mortally wounded, being thrown from the walls of Las Noches, under the pretense that Nnoitra was trying to kill her. I have no doubt Aizen knew about Nnoitra's outward goal, but our secret intention was to see if an Espada could disappear so completely without rousing dangerous suspicion."

"If you have worked with Nnoitra before, why is he not part of this?" asked Ulquiorra. "You acted like Tesla had been wrong for asking him."

Szayelaporro nodded. "That's because, despite the fact we _have_ worked together before, Nnoitra is a rotten person, even more so ever since he became Fifth. I haven't told him anything about this, and though I knew we were safe when Tesla admitted he had talked to him about it, I wanted it clear that we can't have people just asking whoever they like if they want to escape Aizen."

Ulquiorra nodded as if that was enough explanation for him. "And this plot with Neliel?"

"Obviously, it worked," the Eighth said. "Neliel Tu Oderschvank is distant history, forgotten, and free as the moon. However, to replicate this method of escape would take extensive work and planning, and it would never work to get more then a few of us out before arousing suspicion." Szayelaporro's fingers clenched into a fist. "That is the problem with all these plans… we can't act _at all_ in any large scale without making Aizen or one of his Generals suspicious. One or two Fraccions, an Espada, it might be possible to get them out, one way or another, but…"

"It seems our allies are what is keeping us from succeeding," stated Ulquiorra dispassionately. "How disappointing…"

Szayelaporro glared at him. "You make it sound like we should just destroy our alliance, betray one another."

"You are wrong, I was merely stating that we are being hindered by our ties," Ulquiorra replied, turning towards the door. "It seems ironic. The Espada are kept from escaping a war of the Shinigami by the refusal to turn their backs on each other… an ideal many Shinigami believe us incapable of, brought about by the presence of a…"

The black-haired Espada stopped abruptly, and before Szayelaporro could ask him what he had been going to say, Ulquiorra had walked out. The scientist frowned as he turned back to his work, wondering what had gotten into the usually so indifferent Fourth Espada.

In the hall, Ulquiorra paused in his walk. One hand rose to his chest, one finger touched the cloth. And the hole that rested beneath it. With a gentle sigh, Ulquiorra lowered his hand and continued walking. What an absurd notion, absurd enough just to think it, even more to say it aloud.

He would have to be careful not to get any more comfortable with the other Espada, or one of these days he might accidentally voice a thought he never meant to.

* * *

_It was dark when the man opened his eyes. He frowned and stared up at the… ceiling? Sky? _

_For a moment, everything was blank. He didn't know where he was, what he was, who he was. He didn't remember anything, but the fact was lost to him as he didn't know he was supposed to. He raised a hand, looking at it with a slightly puzzled expression. _

_Then something triggered._

_A surge rushed through him, awakening instincts and memories from where they had been lying dormant. He stiffened as his head began throbbing, closing his eyes tightly as he tried to bear the sudden influx of information. _

_A moon in a black sky._

_A hunter in the desert._

_A man in white._

_A castle._

_A sword._

_A powerful foe._

_A pain in his chest._

_A pain in his shoulder._

_A girl with orange hair._

_A feeling of triumph._

_Frustration._

_Fear._

_The urge to destroy._

_An invasion._

_A plot._

_A fight._

_A teenaged human boy._

_A mask of white and red._

_Failure._

_Pain._

_Struggling…_

_Darkness…_

_A name._

"_Go back…" he gasped, curling up to try and stop the flow of memories. "…I… can't…"_

_Just as it was about to overwhelm him, the flow of memories suddenly retreated. One after another they faded away into nothingness. He panted for breath, exhausted, confused, and weary. He began to lose consciousness as the memories continued to fade away._

_One memory lasted longer then all the others, and that one he subconsciously tried to hold onto. It wasn't much, only a little thing easily told in two words, but he knew it was important. It was who he was._

_He lost consciousness, and that last memory faded away._


	16. Chapter Eight

Chapter Eight

Ryohime looked at the paper, frustrated. Chikuma's parents had had questions about whether the Kurosaki Clinic could properly take care of their son, but after a visit and a long talk with her dad, they had agreed he couldn't be in better hands. Tamotsu's parents, on the other hand, hadn't even bothered. They were having him transferred to a bigger, far more expensive and impressive hospital for "proper" care.

What really annoyed her was that Tamotsu was practically better all ready, he didn't _need_ more expensive care. Still, it was better Tamotsu get transferred out by stuffy parents then Chikuma; whatever people might think, the best care available in Karakura was right here. Ryohime had never been able to resist just a little bit of healing Kido at night for the more serious injuries, gradually dished out over however long the patient was there.

Erina walked into the clinic, saw Ryohime at her desk and walked over.

"Hi! Is it alright if I see Chikuma and Tamotsu?" she asked, and Ryohime nodded.

"I need to check on Chikuma anyway," she added, standing. "Let's go."

Tamotsu, having mostly recovered from being crushed under a Hollow's foot, was using the opportunity to take a shower. Erina raised an eyebrow as the sound of him singing drifted out of the bathroom, but didn't comment.

Chikuma was awake and reading the novel Ryohime had lent Tamotsu. Erina hung back as Ryohime talked with him, asking him how he felt and making sure he was comfortable. The shy Chikuma replied in as few words as possible, practically hiding behind the book until Ryohime went to check something on the computer.

Erina sat down next to him and put her chin in her hands. "So, you're feeling better, then?" she asked, and Chikuma nodded.

"I honestly didn't expect it to stop hurting so quickly," he admitted. "I've never had a broken bone before, but I always imagined it would hurt for weeks whenever you moved."

Ryohime bit her lip from the other side of the room, hoping she hadn't healed him too much too quickly. She just couldn't bear _not_ healing him, though, not when he had obviously been in such pain.

"Maybe you're a fast healer," suggested Erina lightly. "How's the book?"

Chikuma shrugged. "Good, actually. I've been looking for a new series to take up, this one might be good. Ryohime-san?" he called, and Ryohime looked over her shoulder.

"Yes?"

"How many books are there in this series?"

She thought for a moment. "It's pretty extended, actually. This series has five books, but there's also a sequel series based on a different character and a manga, which they're making into an anime. There's a lot of really cool stuff built into the world, and they're exploring a lot of it in the current chapters."

Chikuma hmmed, and Ryohime turned back to her work as the two friends continued their discussion.

.

Erina glanced at Ryohime, busily working at… _something_, then back at her friend.

"Wow, you actually asked her a question," she whispered to him. "Getting comfortable around her already?"

He gave her a puzzled glance.

"It took you months to say anything more then 'hi' to me," she reminded him.

He looked at her blankly, then went back to hiding behind his book. "Stop implying things. I just wanted to know more about the series…"

Erina chuckled. "Hey, she's a nice girl. And a doctor. Good combination."

Chikuma didn't reply, merely continued reading his book with a little displeased scowl.

Tamotsu walked out of the bathroom, no longer in his suit, but a rather casual outfit Erina assumed Ryohime had found for him. His longish blonde hair was still wet, and unusually messy looking.

"There is no hairbrush in there," he stated as he sat down with a towel on his bed. He threw it over his shoulders and looked at Ryohime expectantly. "Is there one somewhere I could use before my hair dries?"

Ryohime nodded and hurried off to get on, leaving the three friends alone for a minute.

"How are _you_ doing?" Erina asked, looking at Tamotsu. The tall young heir shrugged.

"I _feel_ fine, and Kurosaki-sensei says that I am, but my parents want our own doctor check me out first. I'm looking forward to getting out of here."

Erina shifted, slightly awkward. "Have you… thought at all about the 'accident'?"

Tamotsu sighed, running his fingers through his long side-bangs. "If by 'accident' you mean when we were attacked by an invisible… whatever it was, then yes, I have. And I admit it, it definitely felt like an alien."

"It wasn't an alien," interjected Chikuma, looking uncomfortable, "but can't we talk about it some other time? More… privately?"

Erina nodded, satisfied at least that they _would_ talk about it later, then perked up, looking at the clock.

"Oh, I forgot! I've got something I have to do this afternoon before I head home! Sorry, guys, I'm going to have to leave early today."

Tamotsu waved a hand airily. "Don't worry about it, thanks for stopping by as often as you do."

Erina smiled and stood, picking up her bag. "I'll see you guys tomorrow, then," she said, waving as she left. Chikuma waved back, then settled back down again with his book.

As soon as Erina was out of sight, Tamotsu picked up the book by _his_ side table. He looked at the title and then at Chikuma, confused.

"I've still got Book One, what are _you_ reading?"

Chikuma peeked around the pages at him. "Book Three. I read Book One while you were sleeping last night."

.

James sat in his garden, absent-mindedly checking the delicate young plants and pulling weeds. Most of his attention wasn't on his work, though; he was puzzling over the events of the past week or so.

He had been witness to two, no, _three_, attacks by masked creatures few people seemed to be able to see. A man that James only remembered by his bright orange hair had saved them the first time, and shortly afterward he had seen a girl with the same color hair at the nearest clinic. As far as James was concerned, that alone could have been a coincidence.

But then he had run into that boy, roughly his own age, with the brown eyes and dirty-blonde hair. At first, James had merely wondered why this seemingly unremarkable boy seemed so… notable. Then the second monster had appeared, and James had seen why.

The third time… that was even more confusing to him. Right after the spirits that had been haunting him had disappeared, he had (apparently randomly) come across that same boy again. And promptly nearly been hit by a flying katana. And, after following when the blonde boy had run off, James had witnessed a _third_ battle with a masked monster, this time with, for some reason, the girl from the clinic and the blonde boy fighting side-by-side. Same outfits… black kimonos with white sashes, the boy with a sheath across his lower back, the girl with a sheath over her shoulder.

But… how? The first time James had seen him, that boy had somehow split himself into two people, one of whom wore that same black kimono, wielding that katana. How was that possible? Were there really two of them, or was there some other trick to this that James couldn't comprehend.

And the first time… the first person James had seen fighting off those monsters _hadn't_ been wearing a kimono, of any color. But he certainly hadn't been human. No human could run straight up a building like that.

As confusing as it all was, James was determined to finally figure out what this was all about. He had ignored it for long enough. He already knew where to start, that clinic where the orange-haired girl lived. And if he happened to see that boy again on the way, all the better.

"Hello, James-san!"

James looked sharply over his shoulder to find that young woman, Erina, standing outside his gate. He blinked.

"Hi," he said, glancing over his garden once more before standing and brushing himself off. "What do you want?"

She tapped on the gate with one finger. "May I come in?" she asked.

James considered for a moment, then sighed gently and moved to unlock the small gate. Erina stepped inside the yard, moving out of the way so he could close it again.

"Now you're inside," James said flatly. "What do you need?"

"I have something for you," she replied happily, digging into her bag. "Partly because I really wanted to do something nice to thank you for helping me that night, but partly also because I heard from Steve you recently lost your fish."

James' expression didn't change at all as she spoke, but when she finally held out her gift to him, he couldn't stop his eyes from widening slightly, lightening slightly.

"So… you bought me a new fish?" he asked, bewildered, as she held the ziplock bag out to him.

"It glows in the dark," she said proudly. "Scientists are apparently able to do all sorts of things to pet fish these days, this one glows green."

James didn't move to take it, but turned and started towards his door. "Do you want to come in?" he asked, sounding far less gloomy then Erina had ever heard him. Of course she followed.

.

Inside was rather dark before James turned on the lights, but despite first appearances it was nowhere near as derelict as Erina had expected of the home of such a quiet, sad, lone teenager. Everything was very clean and orderly, the windows scrubbed, the carpet vacuumed, the corners dusted. For a guy he seemed very interested in keeping the place clean.

He led her into the kitchen, where he gestured to an empty, but clean fishbowl on the table.

"There's already clean water in it," he said, and Erina raised an eyebrow as she gently scooped the fish out of its bag and into the bowl.

"You keep your empty fishbowl full of water?" she asked, and James shrugged. She thought she caught an almost embarrassed look before he turned away.

"It's habit," he said, opening a cupboard and taking out a glass. "Would you like a drink?"

Erina shook her head, sitting down at the table. "No, thank you."

James filled his glass with water and sat down across from her, the fishbowl between them. He watched his new fish as it explored its new home, Erina watched him, chin in her hand, as she tried to figure out what to say.

"Thank you."

Erina hardly heard the whispered words, and leaned forward slightly.

"What did you say?"

James' eyes didn't leave his new fish, but his voice did become more then a whisper. "Thank you. For the fish, I mean."

Erina felt herself blushing slightly. "Oh, you're welcome. It's… well, you did try to stop me from running off and getting myself killed back then… and then you carried Chikuma all the way to the clinic without a word of protest. I guess I felt just saying 'thanks' and calling it enough was… wrong."

James didn't say anything after that, but Erina was certain she saw the sparkle of a smile in his eyes. A few minutes later she said goodbye and left, completely satisfied with the reception of her gift fish.

She liked seeing his eyes sparkle like that. She had never thought that much about how beautiful a mere smile could be, until she had come across the one person who seemed never to do it.

.

Edward tickled the carpet with his fingers, wiggling them tantalizingly in front of Shiro's eyes. The kitten sprang forward, tail flicking from side to side, and dug her tiny claws into the skin on the back of his hand, biting at his finger. Edward chuckled, ignoring the pain of the tiny claws, and pulled his hand back a bit, making more fun for Shiro.

Her brothers were wrestling each other by the fireplace, Kuro and Ichigo biting and kicking as they tumbled over and over. At the moment Ichigo was definitely winning, sprawled on top of Kuro with his teeth fastened in his brother's ear.

"Nii-san, you're bleeding again," stated Steve absently as he typed away on his computer. Edward shot him a glance, then at his hands. He huffed.

"That's not bleeding, it's just a red scratch," he protested, ticking Shiro behind the ears and then drawing his fingers back fast as she tried to eat them.

"You're going to turn them into monsters if you keep encouraging them to bite people," said Steve, and Edward laughed.

"They're just playing, all kittens play. They'll grow out of it, unfortunately, but I would be doing them a great disservice to not help them train for mouse-catching in the future. Your childhood is the best time to learn anything!"

"You're weird," stated Steve in his mild, smug tone. Edward shrugged off the potential insult and continued playing with his kittens.

"Your karate competition is coming up, isn't it?" Steve asked a minute later, and Edward nodded.

"Yeah. We've only got… what day is it?"

"June twenty-second."

"Less then a week, then. I'm looking forward to winning our title back from those Kawabe Dojo punks!"

Steve looked up at him with a raised eyebrow. "Getting rather passionate about this, aren't you?"

Edward snickered. "They've been our rivals for years, and we've lost to them the last _three_ tournaments in a row! I am _not_ letting that go unchallenged."

Steve looked back at his computer. "And I'll be there cheering you, just remember it _is_ just a tournament."

"Heh, do I seriously look like a guy who would take a fight too far?" asked Edward, flipping Shiro onto her belly and tickling her. The kitten proceeded to yowl at him and kick at his hand with both back paws, leaning in to bite him.

Steve smiled. "Of course, why did I ever doubt you?"


	17. Arrancar Interlude 8 and After-Interlude

_Interlude_

"We no longer have any choice."

Every single available member of the secret Arrancar conspiracy was in Szayelaporro's secondary reality, and the Eighth Espada was laying out the unfortunate truth to all of them.

"Ulquiorra is soon going to infiltrate the World of the Living to bring the human girl Inoue Orihime to Aizen, and once that happens, the war we have been expecting will break. I cannot say how long it will take for the Shinigami to reach Hueco Mundo, but when they do they are going to try rescuing her. And we will have to fight.

"I would like to say I fully expect all of us to crush the Shinigami under our feet, that our power will overwhelm them completely, but I honestly can't believe that. The Shinigami have some downright frightening personnel in their ranks, as well as the Shinigami Daiko, who we have already determined to be a human of surprising potential.

"Unfortunately, I have no solid, foolproof plan that will let us escape Aizen, and his Shinigami enemies. We still have a short time to come up with something, but any plan at this stage would be risky at best, potentially fatal. Unless something completely unexpected comes up to save us, I cannot give you any advice except… survive."

"We're not just going to lie down and die," snarled Grimmjow, his hand tightening into a fist on the table. "Those Shinigami are going to regret ever forcing themselves into our lives…"

"Remember we are fighting Aizen-sama's enemies, Grimmjow," reminded Ulquiorra quietly. "Not Aizen-sama himself."

Grimmjow growled to himself, but didn't respond. Szayelaporro continued.

"Right now, as a group, we cannot escape. If, during this disaster, you see a chance to get away, take it. If even one of us can make it to freedom at this point, I'll be relieved. But if such an opportunity _does not_ show itself… I have a backup plan."

Starrk scratched his head, giving Szayelaporro a lazy look. "Backup plan? For what, dying?"

Szayelaporro cracked a smile, one that his fellow conspirators found unnervingly crazy. "That is exactly right. My backup plan will only work… if we die."

.

"I'm having second thoughts about our head-scientist's sanity."

Nnoitra leaned against the wall, arms crossed. "Finally catching on?" he sneered, and Tesla lowered his eyes.

"Well, I guess I'd just never actually _seen_ him while he was dissecting things before," he admitted.

"The guy's insane," Nnoitra snapped firmly. "Which is what makes him so useful to have around. Though he's gonna be dead weight in a battle. Shouldn't be an Espada…"

Tesla cocked his head. "Then what _would_ he be?" he asked, and Nnoitra glared at him.

"Something else! Las Noches' Head Evil Scientist, or something. The Espada are the head of Aizen's _military_ power, we'll be on the front lines in whatever he's got planned. Granz is hardly suited for battle with captain-level Shinigami."

Tesla didn't reply, he knew he was pushing it already with so many comments. Nnoitra was hardly the most affectionate master a Fraccion could have.

Nnoitra walked over to his couch and flopped down on it, his long limbs hanging carelessly over various sides. "Tesla! I want a drink!"

Tesla bowed and hurried away to fetch him one. For a moment, he pictured what might happen if Szayelaporro _wasn't_ an Espada. Who would take his place? Probably some obscure Arrancar Tesla didn't know. Maybe one of Aizen-sama's test Arrancars, a new, more powerful one.

He returned with the drink to find that Nnoitra had fallen asleep. Tesla's eyes widened slightly, and he instantly began tiptoeing carefully so as not to wake his master up. He set the goblet on the table next to the couch and bustled around, dusting the furniture and other useless jobs he had already done a thousand times. That was his default, when he wasn't directly serving Nnoitra-sama, he was cleaning.

He hummed quietly to himself as he worked, almost perfectly content. There was the little matter of trusting their lives to a crazy, not-fully-tested plan devised by an insane scientist, but he let himself ignore that detail of the future for the moment. Nnoitra was asleep, and therefore not acting evil, and everything was neat and quiet in the white suite.

Then there was a knock on the door, and Tesla hurried over to open it before they knocked again and woke up Nnoitra. It was one of the lesser Arrancars that served Szayelaporro with a message. Ulquiorra, Grimmjow, Luppi, Yammy and a recently created Arrancar named Wonderwyce were going to the World of the Living.

Tesla accepted the message with a nod, then closed the door again. So… this was it. The first move was being made. The war was coming.

* * *

_Szayelaporro blinked. Now this was unexpected. _

_Of course, he had no idea what he _had_ been expecting, or why he had been expecting it, but this certainly wasn't it. And what was 'Szayelaporro' anyway? It sounded like some kind of foreign… bug. Why was he thinking of himself as such a thing?_

_For that matter, what was foreign? This certainly _wasn't_, somehow the ceiling above him looked very not-foreign, but the images popping into his head were _very_ foreign indeed. A white desert? Crazy animals with white masks? How unusual._

_Maybe it was all some kind of weird dream. He had had weird dreams before, even more bizarre then this one, he was certain of it. He chuckled silently to himself as he saw a weird dream memory of a giant, crying bat. And a clown. And himself eating a sword._

_This was amusing! Eating swords… he snickered to himself at the sheer absurdity of the notion. That was a trick for performers, not geniuses._

_Was he a genius? For some reason it felt like he was, but he couldn't really remember what he had to be a genius about. And who was the weirdo with blue hair? For some reason he looked familiar… very familiar. But he was certain he had never met a man who would wear part of an animal jaw on his face, or eye make-up. For that matter, he wasn't even sure he could even _dream up_ such a thing._

_What day was it? Somehow he had the notion it was his birthday. But he had missed it. Had anyone noticed? And what was that odd feeling? It made him uncomfortable somehow… but it was familiar. Shouldn't something so familiar make him feel more relaxed? Why did this one grate on his nerves so? And then there was another feeling… one he couldn't quite place. It was odd… _

I've got to go back to sleep_, he thought to himself, unsure why he was thinking such a thing. But it was important for some reason. _I shouldn't be awake at this hour.

_Then one dream-like memory became clear in his muddled mind. He was in that white, nighttime desert, and his back was pressed against a rock. His wings were tucked protectively around him. Why did he have wings? _

_There were… things coming toward him. Monsters. They wanted to eat him. He couldn't fight back for some reason. He didn't have the power to take on so many at once._

_And why was his hair pink? Had his hair always been pink?_

_And then another one appeared, between Szayelaporro (why was he still thinking of himself as that?) and those hunting him. A white monster with curving horns and long, blonde hair. And he had been glad to see it arrive._

_A protector, a bodyguard, maybe? It didn't seem too much of a stretch, it was obvious he was trying to protect Szayelaporro. But Szayelaporro somehow knew that wasn't it. Their relationship was something more then just that. A companion? A nakama?_

_A brother?_

_The thought seemed to trigger some deep denial inside him, and he shook his head vehemently, trying to get the memory out of his head. This was wrong somehow, something was very, very wrong. Why didn't he remember? Why didn't he forget? Wasn't he supposed to do one or the other? It wasn't supposed to be so confusing…_

_Overwhelmed, his mind decided to take a break and he passed out. And the memories faded again, back to the corner of his mind where he couldn't find them. Only one thing stayed with him. A name he later couldn't make sense of._

_Yylfordt._

_Yylfordt Granz._


	18. Chapter Nine

Chapter Nine

Herald stared up at the ceiling over his bed, contemplating the energy it would take to get up. He really, seriously, did not want to get up. His morning would be spent cleaning for his lazy artist dad, making breakfast and making sure that half-dead hound they had tied up out back had refrained from kicking the bucket during the night. Not a very pleasant morning. A pleasant morning would be spent not cleaning.

He sighed and almost got up, then lost the willpower. What he wouldn't give for a hyper little brother or sister to _make_ him get up, or at least break the monotony of his bland everyday life. Just him and the old man, school, cleaning, boredom…

Well, there _was_ Vance. And Ryohime. But they were just friends, not siblings. And he could hardly invite them to his house, the old man would probably complain that they were disturbing his "muse", whatever that was.

He finally groaned and forced himself out of bed, rubbing his eyes sleepily. He couldn't just sit around all morning, as much as he'd love to. He could hear his dad snoring in the other bedroom. He had probably stayed up until three painting something and wouldn't be down until long after Herald had gone to school. Oh well.

Herald hardly felt like making something complicated and traditional for breakfast, so he made himself a sandwich. He wondered around the house, doing trace cleaning and making sure the dishwasher and laundry were started, then went to check on "that half-dead hound."

Said dog was sleeping. Of course. Herald sighed heavily at her and fetched fresh water and food for when she woke up. _If_ she woke up. Then it was back into the kitchen to pack lunch for himself and make sure they were still well stocked with food. They were, thankfully, which meant Herald wouldn't have to pick anything up on the way back home.

He then picked up his school satchel and headed out, mumbling a half-hearted goodbye to the house in general. At the sidewalk he sat down and leaned against the fence, closing his eyes. Vance would be along eventually, and when he did get here, he'd wake Herald up. The disciplined karate student was never late.

It was half an hour later that Herald opened his eyes again. He felt distinctly tense. Vance wasn't here.

He glanced at his watch. They should have met up fifteen minutes ago to head for school. That was a significant lapse for Vance. Had something happened…?

_It's probably nothing serious_, he thought to himself, standing. _Maybe he got sick and can't come…_

Alone, he started off down the sidewalk, hoping he still had enough time to get to school on time. Then again, it didn't really matter that much to him. He wondered if he should stop by Vance's house if he didn't show up after school and see what was going on.

_Eh, I'll figure it out later._

_._

Ryohime felt the Hollow's presence only dimly, it was right on the edge of her senses. She hissed through her teeth, looked around and then grabbed her Gikongon, swallowing it.

The artificial soul neatly took over her body, looking at her expectantly for directions.

"Just walk casually to school," ordered Ryohime as she jumped into the air. "Don't hurry, try not to act too silly!"

The Gikon giggled, flipping her hair. "Oh, don't worry, Hime-chan, I won't ruin your lovely image. It'd be such a shame after all the effort you went to building it…"

Ryohime rolled her eyes and leapt off in the direction of the Hollow.

Then she felt a second, weaker presence, and her eyes widened in dismay. Too close… the Hollow was practically on top of him!

_Vance!_

_._

Vance cried out as the _something_ smashed into him, the force of the blow sending him tumbling across the road. He screamed as something snapped against the unyielding road, too dazed to even know where the pain was coming from. His side? His wrist?

_What's going on_?!

He could vaguely make out the wavering outline of… whatever it was against the sky, and he could hear the roars. He scrambled to his hands and knees and tried to get away, but huge, invisible fingers closed around him, pinning his arms to his sides.

"Let… me… go!" he panted, bucking, writhing, trying to get away. The grip didn't lessen at all, only tightened at his attempts to escape. Soon he collapsed limply, too weak from lack of proper oxygen to struggle any further. He watched dizzily as, through the haze of this invisible creature's hand, the ground grew more distant.

_Maybe this is some kind of weird dream,_ he thought hopefully to himself. _This can't be real. Invisible monsters don't exist._

But the pain felt real. The roars sounded real. Everything that morning had felt completely normal, unmistakably real. Was he going crazy, then?

Dimly, he heard someone yelling something. He hadn't quite caught it, but it sounded odd. Burn sky?

Then something impacted nearby, and Vance screamed as he was jerked forward. The _thing_ roared again, right by his ear, and his breathing stopped for a moment as the grip became near bone breaking. In the haze of this unreal reality, he saw something flying through the air towards him. Something as invisible as the monster holding him.

He also thought he heard a very familiar, feminine voice screaming in outrage.

_Now, that can't be right._

That was his last thought before he blacked out.

.

Vance blinked his eyes open to see a young man with dirty-blonde hair leaning over him, looking concerned.

"Are you alright?"

Vance stared at him blankly for a moment, then bolted upright, alarmed. "There was a-!" he exclaimed, cutting himself off as his wrist buckled beneath him. He cried out and took his weight off it quickly, losing his balance. The other boy lunged forward and grabbed him, steadying him while he recovered.

"Just try to relax, you're going to be fine," he said, but Vance caught a little quiver in his voice.

"What happened?" asked Vance weakly, cradling his damaged wrist. "Who are you?"

"My name is Yoshirou. What do you remember?"

Vance thought for a moment. "There was… a… car accident?" As he said it, he knew that memory was somehow wrong. A car accident? It felt all wrong… and thinking about it was giving him a headache.

There was a pause, then Yoshirou helped him to his feet. "Come on, I'm pretty sure your wrist is broken, and you've got some pretty nasty scraps from the asphalt. We should get you to a hospital…"

Vance jerked his head in the direction he thought Ryohime's house was. "Clinic, that way. My friend lives there."

Yoshirou gave him a startled look. "The Kurosaki Clinic?"

"That's the one. So you know where it is?"

"Yes…"

Vance winced as he started walking, but his wrist was the worst part and he didn't need that to walk. "It should be closer then any of the big hospitals, and I trust Kurosaki-sensei more anyway."

Yoshirou hurried to his side and looked at him, concerned. "Are you sure you can go all that way yourself. I could help—"

"No, I'm fine. It's just my wrist…" Vance replied. "Did _you_ see what happened?" he asked, curious.

Yoshirou looked down. "We can talk about it after we get you to the clinic, okay?"

Vance narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but didn't protest.

Ryohime had only been able to do some quick healing Kido on her unconscious friend before leaving him to Yoshirou. Her body, as she made it quite clear, was fully expected to be at school right now, and she couldn't take him to the clinic while outside her body in case he regained consciousness in transfer. It would be, as she put it, "awkward."

So she had run off back to school, and Yoshirou was supposed to take him to the clinic. Which Yoshirou was glad to do… except…

There was… _him._

It was almost enough to make Yoshirou want to just drop Vance off at the door and let him check himself in. With Ryohime at school, there was only _one_ person taking care of the clinic. And Yoshirou wasn't sure how he was supposed to, no, how he _could_ react to meeting him.

The man that was supposed to be a legend. The human that lived under the name of the Shinigami that had defeated enemies Yoshirou had a hard time even imagining.

_Kurosaki Ichigo_.

Yoshirou shook his head fiercely, looking at his pained companion. Vance was Ryohime's friend, and she had asked _Yoshirou_ to make sure he got to the clinic for proper treatment. She didn't want him to know that he had been attacked by a Hollow, and Yoshirou understood completely. So they were doing it the hard way, and unfortunately he had to go along with it, even if it did result in a rather… awkward meeting.

Vance, on the other hand, seemed perfectly at ease at the clinic and pushed inside without a second thought. "Yo, Kurosaki-sensei! Are you here?"

Yoshirou trained his eyes on the floor, biting his lip. "Are you okay from here?" he asked Vance hastily as he heard the footsteps from an adjoining room.

"Oh, yeah, definitely. Thanks for making sure I got here, by the way."

Yoshirou took the thanks with a nod and fled.

The notion was just too weird. He'd meet Ryohime's dad some… _other_ time.

.

Vance sighed as his mom fussed around, insisting that he not move at all for risk he'd hurt his wrist more. Despite his objections, she didn't seem capable of not worrying.

He was, therefore, extremely relieved when Ryohime and Herald stopped over that evening to see how he was.

"My dad said you were in an accident!" exclaimed Ryohime as she hurried into the living room. "Are you alright?!"

Vance smiled at her enthusiastic concern.

"Aye, my wrist just cracked and I got a few scrapes. Nothing too serious…"

Herald leaned in the doorway. "Broken wrist… painful. I suppose that means you're out of the competition next week?"

Vance bit his lip, looking down. "Yeah… it's been nagging me all day. I hate to miss it, but I can't fight with my wrist in a sling. And your dad says it won't be healed for over a month," he added, glancing at Ryohime.

She looked pained. "I wish I could do something to help…" she said, half to herself. Vance chuckled.

"Believe me, _visiting_ was a big help. With Dad at the office, it's just been Mom worrying over me every second since Kurosaki-sensei brought me home this morning." He leaned back against the couch, looking longingly out the window. "I hate injuries…"

"Most people do," said Herald, moving to sit down next to him. He draped his arm over the back of the couch and let his head flop back, staring at the ceiling. "Pain is a bother."

"It's not the pain, I can deal with pain," Vance retorted. "It's the _being held back_ part. This was the _worst_ time to break a bone, I've been looking forward defending our champion title again this year. My mom won't even let me go outside today, and she wants to call the school and make me stay home tomorrow too."

Ryohime winced. "But it's just a wrist, you should be able to go to school at least. Didn't Dad tell her?"

"Oh, yeah, your dad was very detailed when he was telling Mom what I should and shouldn't be able to do, but I think she ignored all the _can_s and just inflated the _cannots_." He rubbed his forehead with his free hand, then reached behind him to grab his disheveled braid. "So, did anything interesting happen to you guys while I was being… hit by cars?" he asked, fiddling with the knotted length of hair.

Herald shrugged with his usual lack of energy. "Not really," he said, playing with the lampstand.

Ryohime smiled slightly, sitting down crosslegged on the floor facing them. "This time he's actually right. We had a typically boring day, devoid of any unusual development unrelated to your accident."

Vance hmmed, then looked at Ryohime with a rather sly expression. "I suppose you haven't read the new Jump yet, have you," he said, making the question an observation. Ryohime's eyes widened.

"You're right! I completely forgot it came out today …"

Vance grinned. "I've been sitting here with nothing to do for hours, so I've already read the newest _Kami Katana_ chapter. Hurry and read it so we can cackle together."

Ryohime's expression became gleeful at Vance's hint of an interesting chapter, and swooped down on the Shonen magazine on the side table. She then huddled on the other couch and began flipping through it to find their favourite manga.

Herald, meanwhile, just sat back enjoying the nice sunset view out Vance's front window and idly glancing at his two friends at irregular intervals. Ryohime was silently laughing gleefully at whatever undoubtedly "epic" things were happening in Kami Katana, Vance was taking out and re-doing his braid.

Herald was well used to such odd behavior from his best friends. And the up side was that the old man thought it an excellent idea for Herald to visit an "ailing friend" and didn't expect him back for hours.

Life was nice and lazy for the time being, just the way Herald liked it.


	19. Arrancar Interlude 9 and After-Interlude

_Interlude_

Ulquiorra watched silently as the human cried below. She was an interesting creature… a human with powers surpassing that of many Hollows and Shinigami, but a weakling. She had no strength for battle, and she made it easy to manipulate her with her blind desire to protect her human nakama.

So here she was, crying to herself as she tried to work up the strength to say goodbye.

_._

Szayelaporro stepped out into the white sand, looking around expectantly. They had to hurry, he didn't know how long his movements would remain undetected. But this was important…

"It's been a while, Szayelaporro."

He jumped, startled. He hadn't noticed the silent approach, and now a familiar blonde Arrancar was standing next to him.

"Oh, it's you," he said, relaxing. "Is your master coming?"

"I'm here, I'm here," said the familiar voice impatiently, and the tall former Espada appeared from behind her Fraccion. Szayelaporro was slightly surprised by how… wild she looked, dressed only in a green dress that looked like it had been put together by an old sack.

"Well, you look like you've found the perfect way to blend in with the wild Hollows," sneered Nnoitra, stepping out of the shadows by the wall of Las Noches. Neliel gave him a rather scornful look.

"Whereas you seem to have remodeled your uniform to resemble a giant spoon," she replied, and Nnoitra glared at her. Szayelaporro stepped in before they could antagonize each other any further.

"Neliel, I wanted to warn you of a few things before… well, whatever happens happens."

Neliel raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean? Something serious happening in Las Noches?"

"Aizen is about to start his war with the Shinigami," said Nnoitra, still scowling because of the 'Spoon' comment. "Cifer is infiltrating the World of the Living right now to force the Shinigami into action."

Neliel frowned slightly in thought. "I didn't expect him to work so fast… are the Espada really ready?"

Szayelaporro sighed. "I don't know, unfortunately. We can't accurately judge the strength of the opponents we're going to be facing, I've only got a few potential opponents studied and they aren't even the dangerous ones! But, no, I asked you to meet because I am worried we aren't ready for what the Shinigami throw at us."

Neliel looked intrigued by his mysterious tone, but Nnoitra promptly ruined it with his loud, obnoxious voice.

"He's got a crazy plan in case we're about to die," he said, using the tip of his absurdly big weapon to clean his ear. Neliel gave him another scathing look.

"How many times have I told you to never use a sharp instrument to clean your ears?" she demanded, and Nnoitra hastily stopped. Neliel sighed. "Looks like you haven't changed _that_ much…"

She turned back to Szayelaporro. "So, what is this 'crazy plan' of yours?"

Szayelaporro glanced at the two Fraccions behind her, then back at Neliel. "Well… it's rather complicated… I just wanted to warn you about—"

Neliel put her hands on her hips, looking determinedly at him. "Look here, evil-genius! I am _sick_ and _tired_ of sitting around in the desert with Pesche and Chakka pretending to be a little kid! If you _finally_ have an idea that could get us all out from under Aizen's thumb, I want to help!"

Szayelaporro looked at her in surprise. "But… you're already free," he said, and Neliel shook her head.

"I have to use a form that limits my intelligence and practically destroys my memories just to stay hidden, too long in my adult form and Aizen is sure to notice. That's not freedom. It's frankly embarrassing. And besides, you guys _aren't_ free and can't use this method, though I admit I would be interested in seeing a toddler Nnoitra…" she added in an only slightly lower tone. Nnoitra snarled at her and grabbed his weapon, only to be held back by Neliel's two Fraccions.

"Please don't, Nnoitra-sama," said the blonde one, and his slightly stockier companion nodded hastily.

"Just an idle comment," he insisted.

Nnoitra loosened his grip, but didn't stop glaring.

"I want to help," Neliel insisted again. Szayelaporro sighed, then after a moment looked up at her again.

"Alright, if you insist. But it's complicated… this may take a while."

* * *

_He woke up with a splitting headache. With a groan he tumbled out of bed, holding his head with a glare of annoyance._

What a rotten time to have a headache_, he snapped mentally to himself. Then he realized that he was actually awake, and he had a headache. Now, how could that be? Was he supposed to be awake? Was he supposed to have a headache? And was he supposed to be so tiny?_

_Maybe it was some bizarre dream, or similarly explainable incident. Because he also seemed to have a giant gap in his memory. He _knew_ there were supposed to be experiences there, things he had done, people he had fought, but right now he couldn't think of them. And who was that light-haired young man running through so many of these memories? He didn't feel very important, somehow, but he showed up all over the place._

_And… an orange haired human? Wait, why was _he_ in Hueco Mundo? Humans didn't belong here. _

_Nnoitra knew he was missing something. He knew his name, he remembered much of his time as an Adjuchas, he remembered several years in a strange white castle, but he didn't remember any of the in-between. Why was he hanging around with other Hollows? And why did they all look so… human. Where had his arms gone?_

_For that matter, where were they now? He held up two pale hands to the dim light from outside, examining them carefully. They didn't feel right, somehow. They were… weak. _

_Weak?! Was he weak? That couldn't be right… he was never weak. He would never have allowed himself to become weak._

_That's right… there was a plan. Someone… someone with pink hair… there was a war? Trouble? They needed to escape someone, a Shinigami. And they didn't have any way to do it without being discovered._

_Why did they care about being discovered? Couldn't they just crush this Shinigami? He didn't recognize the people in these memories, but he somehow knew the majority of them were his allies. And they were scared of one Shinigami? _

_Then his eyes widened as he remembered._

_He remembered a particular fight._

_The crazy man with bells in his hair. _

_They had fought. Nnoitra had enjoyed it… a fight with one as dedicated, as strong, as downright _obsessed_ as he was. That had been a good battle. The battle right before that one, not so much. But the one with the man with the bells had been fun._

_Up until the point where he had died._

_Nnoitra blinked in confusion. No, that couldn't be right. He couldn't actually have _died_. That wasn't possible. If he had died… well, he'd be dead. But he couldn't have lost to a Shinigami, and he hardly felt dead. So why were his memories messed up? Where had they gone?_

_It didn't matter, they'd come back eventually or they wouldn't. In which case he didn't need them. It was time to figure out what was going on._

_Something inside him asked to lie back down and rest, but Nnoitra viciously shoved that weak notion aside. He wasn't going to go back to sleep just because his head hurt! And he wasn't about to let these confusing memories overwhelm him, either._

_He stood up and looked around, taking in the strange room in which he found himself. He didn't recognize half the things littered around, though his vague memories somehow connected them as things that pink-haired lunatic might keep around his lair. They were certainly weird enough. Was that where he was, then? In Pinky's lair?_

_No, that place was at least lit, right? Well, the lights _were_ out, so that might be part of it. But there was a window… and that window didn't lead out into fake sunlight, as he had expected for some reason. Nor did it lead to a dreary, moonlit night. _

_There was fake light, but it was down on the ground. And there was a moon, but it was bright and almost cheerful looking, rising over a forest._

_A forest? How strange. The only forest he remembered was the Menos Forest, deep beneath the surface of the desert._

_He also vaguely remembered that he hadn't known that ten minutes ago. Were his memories still coming back?_

_Wait… the plan?_

_The backup plan._

_Nnoitra gasped aloud, something very unusual for him, as everything came back. _Everything_. A scream tore from his throat as the horrible reality came back, all his memories, everything and everyone he had ever known, before the invasion and after. He fell to the ground and grabbed his head, fighting back against the sick feeling that was taking over. He couldn't give in… he wouldn't be weak! He wouldn't…_

_He heard footsteps on the stairway. Wait… stairway? Yes… from the hall outside. Quick footsteps, worried footsteps. They were coming to see what was wrong. _

"_I don't want them!" he screamed, throwing back his head. "Take them back! I don't want this! This is not my reality!"_

_The footsteps quickened, and the door was thrown open. Harsh light poured into the room, and Nnoitra collapsed on the ground as the light seared his eyes._

"_I want to forget…" he sobbed, trying to ignore the shadow in the doorway. "Take them back… take them back… please…"_


	20. Chapter Ten

Chapter Ten

James set out as soon as he said goodbye to Steve at the school doors. As much as he would have enjoyed talking with his friend as they walked home, he needed to do something that Steve had no place in. It was time to get some answers.

Starting at the street where the attack had happened, he mentally retraced the steps he and Erina had taken to get to that clinic, and as he walked he kept an eye out for the young man who he believed to be a part of this whole mystery. Unfortunately he got all the way to the clinic without seeing a trace of him.

_I'll have to question him separately_, thought James, looking around. There was a little house built onto the side of the clinic, so he headed there.

He raised his hand and knocked. He stood there for a minute, waiting, before finally knocking again.

No answer.

_Maybe no one is home…_ he thought to himself, but he stubbornly raised his hand again. He had finally worked up the nerve to find out what was going on with all these invisible monsters, and he wasn't ready to just give up on it.

"Hey," came a vaguely familiar voice. "Do you need something?"

James turned and saw the orange-haired girl walking up the sidewalk, dressed in a school uniform and carrying a satchel over her shoulder. He had only seen her up close the once, when he and Erina had brought those two boys to the clinic.

"Kurosaki Ryohime?" he asked, just to be sure. She nodded, stopping on the path in front of him.

"Do I know you?" she asked, tilting her head. "You look familiar."

"My name is James, I was with Asano Erina when she came in with her injured friends."

Ryohime's eyes widened slightly in recognition. "Right, yes. So, can I help you?"

James moved aside so she could get to the door. "I had some questions for you about the masked monsters you hunt."

James only just caught the look of utter shock on Ryohime's face as she brushed past him to the door, reaching for her key.

"I'm afraid I don't know what you're talking about," she said bluntly. "I'm a doctor in training, not a monster-fighter."

James wasn't going to let her get away with lying to him like that. "I saw you, wearing a black kimono, fighting alongside that blonde boy the other day. I was nearly impaled by your flying katana. And the first time, when Erina's friends were injured, I saw a man that looked just like an older, male you distracting it so we could get away. The spirits that have been haunting me for years suddenly, mysteriously disappeared, and the same day you killed that fish-monster, I saw you turning the spirits it was trying to eat into butterflies."

"I. Don't. Know. What. You. Are. Talking. About," she said firmly, opening the door to her house and not looking at him. "Go away."

"Why are they hunting me?" James asked, and he was pleased to see her hesitate. "Or is something else? Why do they keep attacking people when I'm nearby?"

"You're being s—" she began to say, then suddenly stopped. James felt it himself, a sudden, light pressure shoving down on him, an uncomfortable presence quite close. He looked at her, standing in the door stiffly with her fingers tightening on the doorframe.

"It feels like one of them," he stated. "Are you going to let it run free? Eat whomever it wants?"

"We'll talk later," she said, glancing over her shoulder at him. "Ask me then."

Then she slammed the door in his face. James could hear her running footsteps fading away inside the house.

"Very well, then," he said. "I'll wait."

.

Ryohime had no idea what she was going to say when she got back. She had no clue what had made her promise him answers, but she had been flustered and pressured. And somehow… he knew so much. He had seen her, Yoshirou, Hollows… he had had _souls_ _haunting_ him! She had felt his reiatsu from a block away, and she thought she had sensed it before, just a trace from far away, for months. And Hollows were targeting him…

She'd have to tell him.

This Hollow was definitely after one of them, either James or herself. It had torn through the sky less then a block behind her house, and had been heading right towards them when she reached the roof. She was in soul form, wearing the typical Shinigami Shihakusho (with a little Kurosaki alternation), Zanpakuto at the ready.

_Let's go_.

The Hollow was small fry for someone as used to them as Ryohime. The battle (if it could be called that) lasted less then a minute before she chopped the mask in half, destroying the Hollow. As it faded away she sheathed her sword, closing her eyes for a moment as she felt around Karakura for other Hollows.

Nothing.

No distractions to get her out of going back inside and figuring out how to explain this to this… _James_.

What an odd name he had.

Just like Vance and Herald.

.

James could feel a presence he had come to assume was Ryohime's, up above with the uncomfortable feeling of the monster. He peeked around the side of the house and caught sight of them in the sky some distance away, Ryohime a flashing dancer around the clumsiness of the masked creature. He recognized the black kimono and wondered for a moment why she bothered changing when the beast was so close to her own house. Did it have something to do with the difference in the feeling that she gave off? Did the kimono make her more supernatural somehow?

_I'll get my answers soon. I just need to be patient_.

So he waited, hands in his pockets, the hood of his jacket up against the wind, in front of her door.

Finally he heard her soft footsteps in the hall again. The door opened, and Ryohime stood in the doorway. James eyes widened slightly, she was still wearing her black kimono, and this was the first time he had seen it so close. The hilt of a sword was visible over her shoulder. The same sword that had come so close to hitting him last time he had seen it.

"Can I come in?" he asked uncomfortably when she said nothing. "Or are we just going to stay here and stare at each other?"

Ryohime sighed, stepping back. "You'd better come in. I have a feeling this is going to take a while."

James hesitated, then followed her into the hall. She led him to the living room, where his eyes were drawn for a moment to the pictures on the wall. There were several of a man with the same shocking hair as Ryohime, and though James had only seen the man once, he was fairly certain it was the same person that had saved him and Erina and those two friends of hers.

"That's my dad," Ryohime said, following his gaze as she sat down on the couch. "Now, you said you had questions. I'll try to answer them, but be nice and ask them one at a time."

James stood for a moment, then turned to look at her. "What are those masked monsters?"

"They're called Hollows, and they are corrupted souls that have either let negative emotion destroy them, or been consumed and corrupted by a different Hollow."

James was silent for a moment as he processed the information, then moved on. "And the spirits that were haunting me… the spirits on the streets that these _Hollows_ eat… those are…?"

"Just what they seem like, the souls of people who have died who haven't fallen prey to Hollows and haven't crossed over yet. You said you saw me turning one into a butterfly, that's not it. I was sending her to Soul Society, where souls live, and the butterfly came through to our world at the same time, as a guide."

"And how can you do that? What is it that makes you and that other boy _feel_ so different?"

Ryohime sighed. "That's more complicated." She hesitated, thinking, for a minute, then gestured at herself. "You can see me, right?"

It seemed a bizarre question, but James nodded.

"Of course you can, but for a lot of people, it would seem you were alone in the room," she said, and James's eyes widened slightly. She continued.

"Hollows, souls… all spiritual beings are invisible to the vast majority of humans. Right now I am a spiritual being as well, a Shinigami. Or, Shinigami Daiko." She hesitated again, as if waiting for him to say something, and when he didn't she cleared her throat and continued.

"Most Shinigami are _only_ spiritual beings, powerful souls that live in Soul Society with the regular souls that have already passed over. I am a human, though, and my Shinigami potential was awakened without me having to die first. When I need to fight a Hollow, my soul leaves my human body and I become a Shinigami for the fight. That's what you're seeing when you see us with our Zanpakutos, in our black Shihakusho. A Shinigami."

James sat down on the floor, legs crossed, and rested his chin on his palm. "So you can separate your soul and your body… can something else control your body while you're gone?"

She looked surprised. "Yes, a Gikon, if you have one. They're substitute souls created by Soul Society, and they can be useful for taking care of your body and make it so no one thinks you're dead while your soul is gone. But how did you know?"

"I saw the young man you have fought alongside with do it when _he_ was fighting a… Hollow." James mused for a moment, then frowned slightly. "Shinigami… if they live in this Soul Society place… they don't have human bodies?"

"That's right."

"So why would they need substitute souls to take care of their bodies if they don't have one?"

"When they come to the World of the Living for an extended time, sometimes they will bring a fake body with them, called a Gigai. It lets them interact with and hide among the regular humans, which sometimes a Shinigami has to do." Ryohime cocked her head at him. "You come up with really smart questions, you know."

James seemed not to realize what she said was a compliment. "It's the best way to get answers. What happens to the Hollows when you kill them? Do they turn back into regular souls?"

"Noooo…" she said carefully. "Well, sometimes… that's a hard question. My dad said that the ones that aren't truly evil go to Soul Society to be eventually reincarnated and everything, the ones that _are_ evil, like while they were actually alive, they don't. They're gone for good. But whatever they were like as humans or souls, a Hollow has basically lost its humanity and acts on instinct and hunger, sometimes more complicated things like cruelty, but never anything good. It's incredibly rare for a Hollow to realize what it has become and try to kill itself, but not unheard of. It's our, the Shinigamis', duty to destroy Hollows, for our good and their own."

"It sounds like a dangerous job…" James said thoughtfully. "Is it just you and that other boy protecting Karakura?"

Ryohime fidgeted. "Well… not exactly. It _should_ be just me, I honestly don't know why Yoshirou is here. I'm glad he is, though, the Hollow activity in town has risen drastically in the last few weeks. And I took over the job from… well, from my father, I guess. He was a Shinigami Daiko too, and back when he started Soul Society wasn't really fond of the idea of leaving a town's safety up to him. But now things have changed and I'm pretty much recognized as being Karakura's guardian. Lately, though, Dad has had to help out every now and then just because I've been having so much to do. He mostly just takes care of the clinic, though."

"Why have more Hollows been appearing?"

"I actually think it's partly because of you," she said, then hastily added, "but not your fault, of course. I've noticed several times a stronger-then-usual human reiatsu, and Hollows would sense it too. And the stronger someone's spiritual energy is, human or soul, the more a Hollow would be attracted to it. They devour reiatsu, it doesn't matter to them if you're still alive or not."

James blinked. "So they _were_ hunting me…" he said, no emotion other then slight curiosity showing in his green eyes despite the revelation.

"Or at least attracted to the area _by_ you, yes," Ryohime corrected.

"Souka…"

The room was silent for a few minutes while James thought and Ryohime stared blankly at the ceiling, hoping she hadn't made a huge mistake by telling him everything.

"So the spiri… the _souls_ that were always hanging around me, were they attracted to me by my reiatsu as well?" he asked eventually, and Ryohime sighed.

"I think so. I can't be sure, but I think so. And unless they were wandering the streets I probably wouldn't have performed konso on them. I don't know what happened to them."

"Konso…?"

"The ritual you saw me use when I helped that girl cross over. That's konso."

James nodded. Then stood. "Thank you, I think I understand better now." He turned to leave the room.

"Matte!" Ryohime exclaimed, jumping off the couch. "You're leaving?"

"Do you expect me to live in your house now that I know you are a Shinigami, onna?" he demanded, glancing over his shoulder at her. Ryohime bristled.

"Of course not! And don't call me that," she snapped. "I just thought you'd have more questions. If you want to go, by all means, leave." Her scowl softened slightly. "You won't tell anyone, right?" she asked, concerned.

"I'm not an idiot," he replied, turning away again. "I'm hardly going to reveal your secret life and get myself hauled away as insane. I apologize for offending you."

With that he walked out.

Ryohime leaned back against the couch with a sigh. _Could have handled that better…_


	21. Arrancar Interlude 10After-Interlude

_Interlude_

Grimmjow sat in his room, the silence broken only by his harsh breathing. _He had had her!_

That accursed Shinigami, the girl with the black hair and purple eyes. The Shinigami he had seen kill D-Roy with his own eyes. He had thought he had killed her before, when she had murdered D-Roy and he had stabbed her through the chest with his bare hand. But she had survived…

His jaw tightened, and a slight growl escaped his throat. When he had looked back and seen her during his second battle with Kurosaki, he had been too shocked to act. And then… afterward… he had had her! A point-blank cero, Kurosaki unable to stop him, the Shinigami too shocked to stop him herself… why couldn't he had gotten his vengeance then?!

_Always… people are always interfering with me!_

Tōsen, when he had tried to release his sword in the first fight with Kurosaki. Then that yellow-haired, grinning man when he had been about to incinerate that Shinigami girl. And when he had tried to release again, to destroy the yellow-haired man and Kurosaki and the Shinigami girl right there and then… Ulquiorra.

"Why did you stop me, Cifer…?" Grimmjow snarled under his breath, his fingernails pressing so hard against his palm it began to bleed. "I could have avenged them…"

"Jaggerjaques-sama? Aizen-sama requests your presence in the throne room."

The voice of one of those random little Fraccion-fellows filtered through the door from the hall, but Grimmjow almost ignored it. What did it matter? His single hand relaxed slightly as he raised it before his eyes, looking blankly at the line of blood trailing down it. If only he had had all his power… he could have destroyed them before Ulquiorra finished with his "secret" mission. If only he had had both his arms.

_Tōsen…!_

"Jaggerjaques-sama! You are needed in the—"

Grimmjow lunged to his feet and crossed the room in a flash, yanking the door open so hard the wall cracked. "I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME!" he bellowed at the small possible-someone's-Fraccion, grabbing his jacket by the collar. "NOW GET OUT OF HERE BEFORE I SLICE YOU FROM HEAD TO HOLLOW-HOLE!"

He dropped the someone to the ground and placed his hand on the hilt of his sword, but the someone had already scurried away in terror. Grimmjow growled in slight satisfaction and scratched himself behind the ear, considering ignoring Aizen's summons and taking a shower instead, but finally sighed and turned toward the throne room. No knowing what the Shinigami would do if he didn't show up. Maybe have his pet justice-parrot chop off his _other_ arm.

.

"Welcome to our castle, Las Noches."

Grimmjow stood sullenly and silently as Aizen spoke with the trembling human girl. He was completely dissatisfied with the woman, she looked absolutely useless and was not at all worth Ulquiorra stopping him from killing those three annoying bugs.

"It seems there's still someone that isn't pleased with us bringing you here."

Grimmjow rolled his eyes. _Wow, amazing genius, you're reading my mind now._

"Isn't that so, Luppi?"

"Of course," replied the new Sixth Espada, and Grimmjow stopped listening. He couldn't wait for this to end so he could go back to his room and maybe get rid of some of this tension that had been building inside him for so long. A nap, a hunt, maybe finally he could just force himself to relax…

"Oh, that's right. Orihime. In order to test your powers, I would like you to restore Grimmjow's left arm."

Grimmjow's eyes widened as the command cut through his haze of numb uncaring. He stood, unable to process exactly what it meant, as Luppi protested loudly at the impossibility.

_He's right… it was destroyed, destroyed entirely. She can't bring it back. She's just a human…_

He stared blankly at the floor as she approached, not looking at her. _This is cruel, Aizen…_

"Soutenkisshun," she said quietly. There was a flash of light, and Grimmjow's eyes were drawn, uncomprehending, to the orange shield that now hovered over where his arm had once been.

"I… reject it."

"Oy, do you hear me, Onna?" demanded Luppi angrily. "Stop trying to put on a good performance to save your own life! If you can't do it, I will kill you!" He pointed at her triumphantly. "That power of yours has to be fake."

_This doesn't feel fake…_ Grimmjow thought, still unable to fully process what was happening, as Luppi protested. A moment later Luppi's loud voice trailed off, and Grimmjow saw his own arm reforming under the orange light of Inoue's shield.

Grimmjow hardly heard Luppi's gasp, Luppi's stuttering protests, as he lifted his left hand before his own wide eyes. _This isn't possible_, his shocked mind kept telling him. _Not possible_…

He heard Aizen's explanation, but didn't take in a word of it. Slowly, like a frozen river melting, he began to understand the reality of what had happened.

He turned his hand over slowly, then clenched it into a fist to test its strength, response. _It really is back… just as it used to be_.

He relaxed his hand and let it drop to his side, looking up. "Oy, Onna," he said quietly, then turned his back on her, looking over his shoulder. Their eyes met as she turned back to him. He gestured with a thumb at his back. "Heal this too."

She approached again, and he could feel his shirt flutter as she set up her shield. And then a strange feeling as the large, cruel burn that had scarred his lower back began to heal. _No, not heal_. Retreat. Become as if it had never been.

"What are you trying to do, Grimmjow?" asked Luppi in a lower voice then he had been using before. The slight trepidation in his voice…

The true reality of it all hit Grimmjow, and he could hardly contain the surge of burning energy that rushed through his body. He turned to look at Luppi, teeth bared in a grin that held all his fierce joy. _My powers are all back_!

His blue eyes locked for a fraction of a second on Luppi's purple ones.

Grimmjow's hand stabbed through Luppi's chest.

A different shade, maybe, a different enemy, but Grimmjow's frustration had finally found an outlet.

"That's the way it is," he said, his pent-up emotions buried for a moment under the beautiful feeling of restored power, control. "See ya, ex-number six."

And he launched a Cero at the gasping Espada.

Former Espada.

_My powers… _

He grinned, then chuckled, then began to cackle. Even he realized how insane he sounded as he laughed, but he didn't care. "They're back," he gasped over his laughter. "My powers have returned." He didn't care he was in Aizen's throne room, or that Ulquiorra, Yammy and Wonderwyce were still watching. His frustration an hour ago was forgotten, the lost battles ignored. It didn't matter any more. He restrained his laughter for just a moment, drew in a ragged breath, raising his head to look at Aizen.

"I am the sixth," he growled, baring his teeth in a feral grin. "Sexta Espada, Grimmjow-da!"

He didn't even try to restrain his laughter after that. He didn't bother. He completely missed the rather disgusted look from Yammy, Ulquiorra's close-eyed expression of long suffering uncaring. His powers were back. Next time… next time he would kill them all. The Shinigami, Kurosaki, Tōsen, anyone and everyone that had crossed him!

And anyone who tried to interfere he would get rid of. He wasn't going to let them escape again!

* * *

_He opened his eyes._

_He remembered._

_He closed his eyes._

_He sighed._

_Hadn't Szayelaporro understood? Was this a mistake… or maybe it was just an oversight. It could be Eighth hadn't been able to figure out how to adjust the plan in time and had to activate it without making the proper changes._

_A shame. He hadn't wanted this._

_But he knew how to undo it. Things were beginning to get better, he didn't want this plan messing it up now. _

_But as he began to destroy those unwanted memories, one came to him that made him hesitate. It was the last one from… then. It was a memory of her. _

_She was reaching out to him, trying to grab his hand. Was that a tear on her cheek? Maybe it was a trick of the light, maybe he was imagining it, but the fact remained… she was trying to hold on to him._

_At the end, as he faded away, she had tried to reach him. And, despite all the plans, despite the knowledge that it was supposed to happen, he had wanted to stop it, just for an instant. Just long enough for her to touch his hand._

_Was that a tear? He touched his cheek and lifted his pale finger to the light, staring at the shiny, moist tip. How interesting. He couldn't remember crying before. Why was he doing it now? _

_Because he had never used to care._

_So why did he now?_

"_You've broken me… Szayelaporro," he said quietly, barely loud enough to hear. He lowered his hand again, resting it against his chest._

_And his eyes widened slightly._

_Was that…?_

_No… no… he couldn't let these memories overwrite everything that had happened since. He had to destroy them before that long, long life became more real then what was happening now._

Gomen'nasai… Onna.

_He let them go, one at a time. He started at the beginning and worked backward, partially so he would remember everything he needed until the end… partially because even now he didn't want to let it go of it. That last memory._

_But they needed to go. He could not let them dictate who he was to become._

_After all… _

…_now…_

…_it was completely normal to have a heart._


	22. Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

"This is ridiculous," Ryohime grumbled as she jumped across the rooftops towards her next target. The number of Hollows showing up in Karakura had risen drastically, and Ryohime could feel the reiatsu that was drawing them. It wasn't just one person, as she had thought when she talked with James. She felt three or four distinct, _growing_ pressures from among the throngs of normal humans out there, and that in and of itself was enough to make her worried.

Up until a month ago, she had never felt another human reiatsu that was unusually strong. Now she could feel that little nagging pressure almost constantly, though it changed from one side of town to the other.

How many of them were out there?

She scowled as she took out the puny little Hollow, then sheathed her Zanpakuto. That was the third one she had killed so far today, and it was only slightly after noon. She hadn't been able to use her own body since she had reached school that morning.

_You'd better not be making a fool of me, Konekohime _

.

Vance pressed himself against the wall, expression one of utter shock, as Ryohime leaned toward him, fingers eagerly reaching for his braid.

"You're such an odd boy, you know that?" she giggled, twirling the narrow length of hair around her finger. "I mean, what kind of karate-fighter-person goes around with his hair in a braid? It's funny."

Herald warily tapped her on the shoulder, almost jumping back as she looked over her shoulder at him.

"Ryohime-san, you're freaking Vance out," he said hesitantly, and Ryohime pursed her lips in a pout.

"That's because Vancy-chan is still just a little kitten," she said, the statement making Vance's panic jump another notch. Kitten? _Vancy-chan?!_

"Get away from me!" he squeaked, batting her hand away with the back of his hand, ducking under her arm to escape. "What's wrong with you?!"

Ryohime cocked her head girlishly, blinking at him. "Oh? Is something wrong, Vancy-chan?"

"Stop calling me that!" he demanded, backing away. "You're not being yourself, Ryohime, snap out of it!"

Ryohime flipped her hair, her usual pony-tail now a wavy, mid-shoulder mane that she was always running her fingers through. "You're not being very nice, Vancy-chan," she pouted, then looked over her shoulder at Herald, widening her eyes and fluttering her eyelashes. "Will you comfort me, Heralad-kun?"

But Herald had had enough and had made his escape while Ryohime was concentrating on Vance. Vance decided to follow his good example and ran.

_Something is seriously wrong with Ryohime_, he thought as he ducked through the school doors and dove into the nearest bush.

.

Ryohime had almost made it to her high school when she felt another Hollow appear. She groaned, but reluctantly turned to take care of it. If only she could find Yoshirou, ask him to cover for her for just a few hours. But she hadn't felt the other Daiko's reiatsu all day.

_Die, you rotten Hollow! I need to get to school!_

The Hollow didn't seem to want to die, and this was a much harder battle then the last one. Ryohime had a hard time getting close to its head because it was a surprising small Hollow, but strong and quick. They dodged around for a while, Ryohime receiving several stinging blows from the Hollow's whipping tail, the Hollow receiving several deep slashes from Ryohime's Zanpakuto.

"Just die already!" she snapped, ducking another tail attack and grabbing it in one hand. The Hollow tried to escape, but she dug her fingernails into its tough skin and drew back her sword.

The Hollow screeched in agony as her sword severed its tail. It jumped away and clung to the side of the nearest building, turning narrowed yellow eyes at her.

"I'm going to devour you, Shinigami," it hissed, flicking a reptilian tongue at her. "I am going to kill you and take all of your strength as my own."

_All your strength_.

Ryohime tore her gaze away from those yellow eyes and watched its claws instead, waiting for it to strike. It was tensing… any time now…

Then it hissed again and backed away, and Ryohime felt Yoshirou's unmistakable reiatsu nearby. Before she could attack, the Hollow turned and slipped back through a crack in the air like a snake into a wall, disappearing back to Hueco Mundo.

Ryohime sighed and sheathed her Zanpakuto again. Yoshirou appeared a moment later, in soul form, looking worried.

"Ryohime-san, I just came from fighting a Hollow on the other side of town. There seem to be quite a few around here suddenly… do you know what's going on?"

Ryohime shook her head. "No. I think they're being attracted by the sudden increase in spiritual energy around here, but I don't know why it's happening. It's more then just you coming to town."

"I know, I've felt several humans with rather high reiatsu lately here. I thought it was just because Karakura is such a high energy place, you're saying it's new?"

"Yes, and I don't know what to do about it." Ryohime shot Yoshirou a grateful smile. "Thanks for taking the initiative to help out. I've been a bit overwhelmed, especially today…"

Yoshirou turned slightly red. "Oh, you're welcome. I really have nothing more to do here while I wait, so it's a nice distraction. Sensei didn't want me to infringe on your territory, but if you don't mind, then…"

Ryohime chuckled. "By all means, take out every Hollow you can find. It would be a really big help, actually. I'm afraid I might fall a bit behind in school if Hollows keep popping up like this…"

Yoshirou brightened significantly. "Well, I can cover for you whenever you need me to. Just say the word."

"Thanks, so long as I'm not taking advantage of you."

"Not at all. I'm happy to do it."

They were quiet for a moment, Ryohime feeling a bit uncomfortable by the idea of asking Yoshirou to take care of everything then just running off. School was almost over already… she'd just have to catch Konekohime on the way home. And there were a few questions she had been wanting to ask him…

"You've mentioned your Sensei a few times before," she said, staying casual. "Is he here too?"

Yoshirou looked slightly awkward. "Noo… _she's_ going to be away for a while. She just dropped me off here and then went to… well, I'm not really sure. Whatever it was dhe has to do."

"Why _are_ you here?" she asked. "I didn't get the chance to ask before, but it seems a little odd for your Sensei to just leave you here alone for no reason."

"There's someone here I'm supposed to meet," Yoshirou replied. "I'm still not sure who it is but I'm sure they will find me somehow."

Ryohime was a little unsatisfied with the answers, but knew it would be rude to press. There was only one more then she would have liked to know… but she couldn't raise the nerve to ask. That would undoubtedly lead to a subject she had no desire to explore right now.

"Well, I've got to get back and catch my Gikon," she said, turning toward her side of the town. "See you later?"

Yoshirou nodded, bowing politely. "Yes, fare well, Ryohime-san."

Ryohime smiled slightly at his old-fashioned manners and hopped away, eager to get back to school, find her body and have at least a part of a normal day.

.

"You did _what_?!"

Konekohime flipped her hair, lips puckered in that obnoxious pout of hers. "I was just playing around with them," she whined. Ryohime screamed a few inarticulate words and grabbed her Shinigami Daiko badge, slamming it into her body's chest. The Gikongan was forced out of her body, and rolled across the floor. Ryohime nearly stomped on it, but refrained as she reentered her limp body.

"You are a horrible person," she snapped at the immobile green pill, gathering her hair and irritatedly tying it back in a ponytail. "How am I _ever_ going to explain this to Vance and Herald?!"

The soul daiko, of course, could not reply.

Ryohime snatched it from the floor and stuffed it into her sock drawer, into the bottom of her sock drawer, inside a sock. She was in a horribly mood as she stomped back downstairs and started making supper, knowing her dad would be hungry when he finished all the work that had to be done at the clinic. He was going to have to check on Chikuma, too…

Ryohime guiltily realized she hadn't gone to check on him at all yesterday, her dad had done it then too because Ryohime had been so busy with Hollows and school and everything.

_He's probably lonely now that Tamotsu is gone_, she thought, and decided to visit him for a few minutes after dinner.

Of course, Chikuma was reading when she finished the dishes and went up to see him. He smiled slightly at her when she came in and spared a hand to give her a wave.

"I thought you might be lonely, so I came up to see how you were doing," Ryohime said, sitting down on Tamotsu's now abandoned bed. Chikuma's smiled deepened slightly.

"Thanks, but I'm used to being alone," he said. "It's nice and quiet. And you've brought me plenty to read."

Ryohime nodded. "I could bring up my manga collection if you run out of novels," she suggested, seeing how quickly he was getting through her books. "Though I doubt those would last too long, either…"

Chikuma chuckled, then winced as his ribs twinged. Ryohime looked at him in concern.

"Are you sure you wouldn't rather be at home? So long as you're resting it shouldn't matter too much where you are, at this point you don't _need_ to stay here…"

Chikuma shook his head, ducking behind his book again. "No, I like it here. At home my parents are really busy with the business and everything, and they probably worry less knowing I'm being taken care of by professionals. As long as I'm not bothering you or your father…"

Ryohime smiled. "Nope, you're our only patient and we don't at all mind having you. It's sort of nice having another kid around here… not that you're a _kid_…" she added awkwardly, realizing how that might sound like an insult, but Chikuma seemed to get what she was trying to say.

"I can see how just living here alone with your father could get lonely," he said, still tucked behind his book. He seemed more comfortable when he didn't have to make eye-contact with the people he was talking to.

"Well, Vance and Herald keep me from getting too lonely," she chuckled, inwardly hoping that she would _still_ have her two best friends after the disaster today. "They're pretty great friends."

"Hmm…"

Ryohime glanced at the clock, then stood. "Well, I've got to go. Do you need anything before we leave?"

Chikuma shook his head, peeking out from behind the book to flash her a quick smile. "No, thank you. Good night, Ryohime-san."

"Night."

.

_She stood in a white city, walls rising high above her. She could only see the buildings that rose higher then those walls, on her own level she saw nothing but the street she was on._

_She was looking for something._

_It was urgent._

_She ran through the confusing maze of walled streets, looking around frantically. She could hear screams… fighting in the distance. She could see dust and smoke flying into the sky. _

_A cold feeling crept through her, a hopelessness. She had to stop it from happening! She could do it this time! She had trained with him… he had trained with her… together they could stop it!_

_She heard the laughter and a chill ran down her spine. She knew that laugh. No one else she had ever heard had a laugh like that, insane, dark, wild. _

Hurry… hurry…_ she thought desperately, pouring all her strength into running. She had to get there _now_, before…_

_An explosion of reiatsu nearly knocked her down. She was close, very close. She could feel the combatants up ahead, five people all with strength so far beyond her it made it hard to breath. And there were others all around, she could see the black-garbed warriors on the roofs, on the walls, swords drawn and eyes wide with fear. _

_She could still stop it! She was stronger now, she had trained, there was still time!_

_She turned a corner, and had to duck as a body flew past her. The Shinigami smashed into the wall behind her, bleeding heavily. Her eyes were drawn for a moment to the tattered, blood-stained white robe that hung from his shoulders, partially obscuring the normal black kimono._

_She knew, without a doubt, what she would see when she turned back to the battle. She raised a hand, knowing she had to act now, before turning. She reached for her Zanpakuto, everything seeming to slow around her. _

_Her hand closed around thin air._

_A sob got caught in her throat, an ache tightened around her chest._

Don't turn, don't turn, I don't have to turn…

_She turned._

_For a moment her breath stopped as she saw again the familiar figure, tattered robe flying around him from the strength of the reiatsu from their fight. The other two were on the ground, the woman unconscious, a pool of blood around her, her companion hardly able to move, but still crouched in front of her protectively._

_And _he_ stood alone, sword tightly held in both hands._

_And his opponent was still laughing as he lunged forward, his pale sword outstretched in front of him._

Ugoke… ugoke... ugoke!

_But Ryohime couldn't move as the sword drove into her father's chest. And, just like the first time, everything stopped. She stood, frozen in inaction, and in front of her her father was frozen with one hand half-way to the sword in his chest, the other tightly holding his own. The white enemy was frozen mid-laugh, eyes wide with cruel delight. And the captain on the ground was frozen as he collapsed, finally succumbing to his wounds._

_And they stayed that way. _

_For eternity._

_._

"_Come to me, Ryohime."_

.

Ryohime opened her eyes, breathing coming in jerks as she sobbed. She curled up on the sand, hugging her knees as she cried.

Gentle footsteps, barely audible over the soft waves, came close, and then she felt a hand on her shoulder. There was a gentle click of his fingernails tapping together as he knelt next to her.

"Are you alright?"

Ryohime didn't reply, she merely turned and threw her arms around his thin waist, hugging him close as she wailed. He held her for several long minutes, whispering words of comfort, and vaguely Ryohime could hear her dad's similar comforting tone in the real world. But she wasn't ready to really wake up yet. She didn't want to.

"We are strong together, Ryohime," came her Zanpakuto's whisper. "We can make it right."

"But we can't make it unhappen," she said jerkily, her crying turning to sobbing hiccups. "Even if we do fix everything that ever went wrong, I can never escape the nightmares."

"Your father had his own nightmare to destroy, but when it came down to it he didn't fight it alone. Let me help protect you from the nightmares too."

"You already have been," she said truthfully, still holding onto him tightly, even though her tears had stopped. "Never leave me, alright?"

"I never will. Yours is the only voice I ever wish to hear calling my name."

* * *

{Author's Note}

And, on that note, I regret to inform you, my loyal readers, that I will be on hiatus until Thursday the 15th of May, when regular submissions should continue. Thanks for reading Backup Plan this far, and I hope you'll still be here upon my return! :D


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